Teen Titans: Rebirth
by Master-Aricitic
Summary: Shortly after Trigon is defeated the titans find themselves faced with another challenge: A young boy. Raven, oddly enough, takes this silent new comer into her care. But is this child more than the titans can handle?
1. A young boy

Well, here is the first chapter, the first real chapter. Most of this you have probably read already... but, then, I did show you all quite a bit of the story. Anywho, I would just like to say I am down the creek without a paddle... If I am using that term correctly it is because (well, technically because a merical occured in which I actually wrote something that people can understand, but...) I need an editor, or two, to preview later chapters. I kinda have some things set up, but I think I am a little to obvious... ah, dang it, now I gave away the ending. Um... before I tell you more, please, someone, ask to be an editor, or somthin... please.

Enjoy the show.

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Oh, and just because I can I'm gonna tell you the funniest, serious statement I have ever heard, "is a first-person turn-based role playing game"... How the 'hell' does that work?  
Thank you and enjoy the show.

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It was a bright and joyous summer day. The Teen Titans were enjoying a week of peace and relaxation. Since Trigon had been banished back to his own universe there hadn't been a single crime of emergency. The titans were enjoying their free time with a picnic in one of the near by parks. It had been Raven's idea as their one week anniversary of freedom and victory over Trigon. The others had eagerly agreed to some time out of the tower and had each brought something to eat. 

Each titan was having a wonderful time, in their own ways. Beast Boy had found some kids who would play fetch with him and Cyborg had found some other kids to play football with. Starfire and Robin were enjoying their time alone together and Raven was meditating peacefully beneath a tree on a nearby hill. Everything was well, at least until something completely unexpected happened.

As she meditated Raven began to sense something strange going on, then without warning a spasm ripped through her body. Her eyes flew open and she stared in horror at the sky. Everyone had noticed it, as the sky darkened to night and even darker. There were no stars in the sky but one single long ribbon of pure white light. As everyone watched the ribbon of white began to fade and at the point where it finally disappeared a ball of spinning fire appeared. The ball of flame was made up of thousands of different colors but the most obvious were red, brown and blue.

The people in the park watched in horror as the huge ball of flame crashed into the forest at the edge of the park and city and ran as the shockwave rippled through the trees. The titans jumped to their feet and ran towards where the ball had crashed wondering what they would find. As they neared the small crater the ball had made they grew more and more concerned and as they finally stepped out into the open space they realized that the ball had hit someone.

A crumpled figure lay on the ground surrounded by four creatures. The four creatures were looking at the person lying on the ground but to titans couldn't see what they were doing. Trying to get a better look Robin and Cyborg began walking towards the things as the others flew but they didn't make it very far before the things noticed and turned to confront them.

A large wolf-like creature was the one closest to the titans, but it was far too big to be a wolf. Its fur was an earthy brown but lined with a silvery grey that shone in the light. The teeth it bared at the titans were rocklike and the same earthy brown and a muddy liquid dripped from its jaws. Its claws were like metal blades as they cut into the ground and they shone in the light as the bits of fur. The wolf's eyes burned with a brown and silver fire as they stared at the titans. Around the wolf a earthy brown and metallic silver flame burned and within the flame archaic symbols floated in circles around the beast.

To the right of the wolf was a large snake, as big as most anacondas. Some of the snake's scales were a blue as dark as water and some were a blue as light as snow or ice. Its fangs were jagged icicles and its eyes burned with a cold fire of blue flame.

On the opposite side was a gigantic hawk. The hawk's feathers were a sky-blue and orangeish yellow streaks actively shot through them. The dirt on the ground moved away from the hawk even though it wasn't flapping its wings and a blue fire burned around it with archaic symbols shooting through it like lightening bolts snapping through the sky.

Behind the person, whom the titans could just make out to be a young boy, was an enormous spider, whose size rivaled the others. Its body was a treetop with hundreds of leaves fluttering in the breeze; its legs were like saplings bending only slightly as they held the body up. The monster's fangs were two huge splinters that snapped together with a sickening crunch of wood. A red flame consumed the monster's body and small green flames floated around it in archaic symbol shapes.

The four animals raged at the titans and suddenly attacked. The wolf leapt at Raven, claws slashing. Raven's shadow flashed between her and the animal stopping it in its tracks, or so she thought. The metallic claws cut right through her shield as though it were nothing. Fearing for herself she spread her shadow on the ground and disappeared in it.

Meanwhile the snake hissed and snapped its icy fangs at Robin as he tried to fend it off with his metal pole. He swung the pole around hitting the snake in the side of the head and there was a shattering sound as a few pieces of its scales shattered off. Watery blood oozed out of the snake and onto Robin's pole, as the blood move it began to freeze and when Robin tried to pull the pole away it shattered. Quickly Robin pulled out one of his disks and threw it at the snake, the snake quickly snapped at the disk and swallowed. Robin smiled to himself as the snake's neck exploded sending sprays of icy water and ice shards everywhere. Robin pulled his cape over his head and the ice and water splashed over him. Robin found himself covered in a frozen cape and he tried to push against it to move it. His cape shattered and the pieces fell to the ground in shards, but the snake had reformed itself and was staring Robin directly eye to eye.

Starfire was shooting her starbolts at the hawk as it flew after her. The starbolts went directly through the hawk as though it were made of nothing. The hawk sped up and passed over Starfire and a bolt of electricity shot through her. Starfire fell through the air, her hair standing up. Just before she hit the ground she woke up and flew at the hawk again starbolts flashing from her hands and eyes. Again the bolts simply passed through the bird but this time as she neared it and the electricity charged Starfire grabbed its legs and pulled it to the ground. The bolt of electricity discharged just as it hit the ground and was rendered harmless.

Cyborg shot his sonic cannon at the spider shocking its flames backward. The spider fell back a few feet but it jumped up above the blast and shot a poisonous blast of flame at Cyborg. Cyborg deflected it flame with his hand and rushed the spider grabbing one of its burning legs and swinging it into the ground. There was a loud cracking sound as a few of the spider's legs broke. Quickly Cyborg pulled the spider up again and threw it through the air; it landed on the ground and stood again. This time it rushed Cyborg and bit its long fangs into Cyborg's armor.

Meanwhile Beast Boy was standing near the boy watching the fighting going on. "I suppose I should help them." he said but as soon as the words had left his mouth he noticed that the boy's body was beginning to lift into the air, a dark menacing shadow surrounding it. Suddenly a bright light shot out of the boy's chest and sliced through the shadow. In response the shadow attacked the light and the two began fighting light and shadow flying everywhere.

Beast Boy stepped backward and watched in horror as his friends were attacked by the beasts and the shadow and light destroyed everything else in their war. He knew he should do something but he didn't know what. Who should he help first? What could he do about the shadow and light? _How was he supposed to help?_ Beast Boy turned to look at the young boy laying on the ground, he knew he should probably do something to help the boy but... and quite suddenly a calm passed over him.

Quickly Beast Boy turned to look at the animals that were attacking his friends. He shifted into the form of a leopard and dashed forward to the snake. Changing into a gorilla he grabbed the unprotected tail of the snake and swung it as hard as he could into the ground. Stunned the snake went limp, water and ice oozing into the ground. Without a second thought Beast Boy rushed forward and whipped the snake into the wolf. As shards of ice and bits of wet dirt flew through the air Beast Boy wrenched the snake free from the wolf and watched briefly as the wolf began to dissolve and fall apart. Noticing only for a moment that the snake had many of the wolf's silver hairs stuck in it Beast Boy ripped the head off and threw it at the hawk. A loud lightening crack struck and a bolt flashed from the bird through the snake's head and into its body shattering both sides. The explosion from the snake and bird shot through the air and eventually hit the spider sending a thick icy fang and a brisk wind into it. The fire around the spider sizzled and cracked and it became very obvious that the fire was now _burning_ the wood.

As the quickly decaying corpses of the animals settled into the ground the other titans moved towards Beast Boy and watched in horror as the shadow and light continued to fight in the air. Flashes of light and wisps of shadow flew everywhere cutting into the wilderness and either 'burning' or 'freezing' it. Wherever both shadow and light hit an explosion was sure to follow.

"So, any brilliant ideas on how to get rid of those two?" Raven asked Beast Boy.

"Not a clue." He replied.

"Look out!" Robin yelled as shadow followed by light flew in their direction.

Everyone scattered, except for the boy who almost seemed to be dead, and the shadow and light hit the ground. The explosion sent rock and dirt flying everywhere and most of the titans were still hit by its shockwave. Robin flew through the air towards a tree, closely followed by Cyborg. Starfire and Beast Boy shot up into the air over the trees and Raven flew past the boy who had begun tumbling over the ground.

As everyone landed they looked back up at the fighting pair and watched to see where the next stray attack would hit. As they watched a blade of shadow flew past the light directly at Raven. She dodged but forgot that the boy had landed behind her. As she tried to correct her mistake and as she put up her shadow to try and shield the blast a beam of light cut through the shadow's body and continued directly where Raven had been dodging to. The shadow hit her shield and passed through but the light hit her and she was knocked over, her body illuminated by a flame like light.

The boy's body began to levitate in the air, shadow burning around it. The shadow in the air that had been cut began make a mad dash back towards the boy, perhaps trying to save itself. Robin, Cyborg and Starfire all began shooting at the shadow flying at the boy, and Raven, but nothing they could do even touched the shadow. As the broken shadow's body reached the boy there was a blood curdling scream. The light, which had frozen in the air, apparently confused, suddenly realized what was happening and rushed back towards the boy screaming as well.

"What's going on?" Robin yelled over the noise.

"I think they are trying to return to his body." Beast Boy yelled back.

As the light neared the shadow covered boy the boy's hand lifted and an intense beam of shadow shot towards the light. The boy was completely engulfed in the shadow flame now and the others couldn't see him at all... except Raven, who was still covered in the light. Raven was confused by what had just happened but as the light dodged the shadow and moved closer to her she jumped into the air and began flying towards it. Raven really didn't know what had made her decide to do this but as she moved towards it the light appeared to turn towards her and nod. Suddenly the light was all around her and she could feel it controlling her.

What the others saw was the light engulfing Raven and her appear to burst into very bright, very white flames. Then the flames began to focus into a ball and Raven rushed the shadow engulfed boy. The two collided and there was a shockwave that knocked back the titans and knocked them all out.

When they awoke, only moments later, they couldn't remember what had just happened. All they could remember was the light and shadow colliding and not who they had been surrounding. They got up and looked around for the boy, who was still lying in a newly created ditch. Robin bent down and checked to see if the boy was alive, but as his hand neared the boy's head the boy jumped up and looked, wide eyed and afraid, at Robin and his outstretched hand.

"It's ok," Robin said. "I won't hurt you..."

The boy backed away, his mouth slightly opened but his eyes the same. He looked around at Robin, Beast Boy, Starfire and Cyborg and continued backing up. The boy seemed terrified of the titans, even as they tried to express and show compassion, he just continued to back up... until he backed into Raven, who had finally stood up behind him. The boy turned around and began backing away until he looked at Raven; then, quickly standing up, he ran to her and reached his arms around her legs quivering in fear.

"Uh... ok." Raven said, startled by the boy's reaction to her.

"That's strange." Starfire said. "He is afraid of us but..."

"But he isn't afraid of you, Raven." Beast Boy interrupted. "I mean, come on, little green guy versus dark girl..."

"I didn't ask for this." Raven said, her hand moving out and laying gently on the boy's head.

"Oh yeah, then why is your hand on his head?" Beast Boy accused.

Raven looked down at her hand on the boy's shaking head and jumped slightly. She removed her hand and the others could see a slight blush run across her face. Raven pulled her hood down and bent to the same level as the boy. Gently she put her hands on his shoulders and pushed him slightly away from her. As the boy's face came into view Raven saw his wide frightened eyes as two tears ran down them. The boy was breathing hard and rapidly; he looked like he was panicking.

"It's ok..." Raven said bringing the boy into a comforting hug. "It's ok."

The other titans looked at her baffled. This was not something they had ever expected Raven to do. Besides, why was the boy not afraid of her but afraid of the rest of them? That didn't make any sense either. As Raven looked up from the boy and saw the stares she was being given she said, "What? He's panicking, what else was I supposed to do?"

"You could ask him what was going on?" Robin suggested.

Raven looked at the little boy again and gently pried him from her. She looked him in the face and saw that he had calmed down considerably. "What's your name?"

The boy wiped his eyes but just stared at her. He opened his mouth and looked like he was about to say something but then closed it quickly without saying a word. He did this a few more times but continued to be speechless. Raven moved her hand to the boy's forehead to move some hair that was getting into his eyes but when she touched his forehead she found herself sensing his mind. She felt a calm from a mind void of nearly all knowledge, almost like a baby or someone who had never learned anything... but she also sensed that something was missing from this mind. She felt as though the calm was not originally from that lack of knowledge but from something else.

"I think he lost his memories." Raven told the others. "I accidentally just entered his mind and... well... I guess we finally found someone with less in mind than Beast Boy."

"Hey!" Beast Boy objected, but then added. "What?"

"So what are we going to do with him?" Raven asked.

"We should see if he is anyone's child." Robin said. "He might have gotten lost."

"Some how I don't think that is the case." Starfire said. "I may not know much about this world but I haven't ever seen clothing like that, except for villains or heroes."

Suddenly the titans looked at him, really looked at him for the first time. He was a young boy, seven at the oldest, about half Beast Boy's height, or about the height Raven had been when Robin had found her after she had lost her memories. He had short brown hair that was neither messy nor combed, an honest face with large eyes. His eyes were one of the oddities of him, they were two different colors, his left eye being a light green surrounding a dark brown and his right eye being a dark green surrounded by a thin ring of light brown. His cloths were almost a mix between Robin's and Raven's but he was also wearing a cloak. The cloths were a mix between dirty brown and silvery grey except for a few places, such as on the cape, where there appeared to have once been a symbol.

"Somehow I think Starfire is right." Beast Boy said. "Besides he looks like he has been alone for a while. Kind of like..."

"Right." Cyborg said allowing Beast Boy to not have to say 'Terra'. "I think he must have either been abandoned or he ran away... of course he could have fallen from the sky, but that isn't as likely."

"So, what should we do with him?" Raven asked again.

"I guess we should bring him back to the tower with us."

At that Raven appeared to perk up slightly but the others didn't really notice.

"What should we call him?" Starfire asked. "Since we don't know his name."

They all paused in thought for a moment. After a few seconds Raven answered, "Tim... Timothy. Let's call him Timothy."

As Raven called his new name Timothy looked up at her. It was almost as if he was responding to his new name. Raven smiled down at him as the others turned to walk back to the T-Car. She took his hand in hers and he smiled up at her as they walked after the others.


	2. Signs of Trouble

Well, I certainly am pleased. For some odd reason the server eliminated all of the 'hits' counters on all of my stories... I remember that this one had somewhere around twenty something... Well, after actually posting my first chapter it went far beyond that. Thirty-eight I believe... Anyway, for those of you who read these little blurbs before the chapters I just wanna thank you all. I'd thank the others but they don't read my babbling.  
Enjoy.  
Oh, P.S. if you find any errors, e-mail me and I'll try to change them, and of course give you credit for catching it.

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Back at the tower the titans began wondering where Timothy would sleep but as Raven took the initiative and got one of the spare beds from storage and brought it to her room the question seemed to be answered. That is until Robin asked, "Are you sure you want him in your room?"

"Yes." Raven replied continuing to levitate the bed up to her room.

"But you have so many delicate things that could be broken." Robin objected. "And won't some of the decoration frighten him?"

"No, he is in there right now, and he hasn't touched anything." Raven replied as she opened the stairwell door that led to the floor with their rooms on it. The bed passed through the door followed by Raven and then Robin. As they entered her room Robin realized what she meant. Timothy was looking at her decorations with the utmost interest, but as Robin entered the room Timothy moved away from him and towards the back.

"Why is he so frightened of the rest of us?" Robin asked watching Timothy move away his wide eyes locked onto Robin.

"I don't know, but I would like to find out."

"Have you been able to get him to talk?"

"Not yet, but I am going to try."

"When you do..."

"I know, tell you." Raven said turning to face Robin, a cross look darkening her face.

Robin left the room and Raven placed the bed in an open spot. Timothy walked over to her and clutched onto her cape. She reached her hand down and held Timothy's hand; then she picked him up and held him in her arms looking around her room. Timothy put his arms around her neck and clung to her in a hug.

---

That night after Raven put Timothy to bed and went to sleep she found herself in a strange dream. Everywhere around her were clouds of various colors. The clouds swam around her and puffed into and out of existence as she watched. She quickly noticed that she was floating and couldn't move closer to or further away from the clouds but as a change came over them she realized why. Slowly an image appeared in front of her; a young man, just slightly older than herself had 'walked' into existence about five feet ahead.

The man had long blond hair and was wearing a long white cape that had leafy green shade of gold trim around it. As the cape moved she could see reflections of light bouncing off of symbols sown into the cape. Beneath the cape the man wore a long cloak with similar symbols and beneath that he wore a one piece outfit similar to hers but with legs, all of which was also white.

"Hello Raven." The man said.

"Who are you?" Raven asked. "And how do you know who I am?"

The man laughed gently, "Well, this is your dream so it isn't like I wouldn't know who you are, even if I pretended not to..."

"So then this is just a dream?" Raven asked, a little unsure.

"No... Well, yes, but it is far more than just a dream." The man said. "You are seeing me and I am seeing you. We are in your mind but I am able to control what we see around us... I do not control you and you do not control me." here the man paused for a second and waved his hand. A small patch of cloud rippled and changed into a chair which then moved over to Raven. "You can sit if you wish."

"Who are you?" Raven asked again not sitting.

The man sighed and started, "This is difficult to explain. I can't tell you," he said simply. "I can't tell you because I am a different person in the dream world. I can remember nearly everything here, but in the physical world I have completely lost my memories. If I were to tell you who I am, who I truly am and you were to tell me in the waking world then something bad would happen."

"Something bad?" Raven repeated. "What?"

"My energies have been scattered across the world, and probably part of the universe. If you were to tell me, even accidentally, in the waking world who I was all of that energy would return to me. The reason this is bad is because if my energies return to me all at once it will create a reverse shockwave and that will react something like a black hole or an explosion."

"_Who__are_ _you_?" Raven asked again. "You keep talking as though I know you..."

The man's image shifted slightly and he began to shrink his hair and cloths becoming darker and dirty. The man's eyes shifted and his irises became two different colors, finally he wasn't a man anymore but a young boy, no older than seven. Raven gasped as she realized who he was. "Timothy?"

_Yes, you finally understand._ The man's voice reverberated all around her. _I am Timothy, the boy who you kindly took in, and for that I am indebted to you._

Questions ran through Raven's mind, many questions and she began to feel light headed. Her mind was swimming, this was becoming too much for her. The little boy she had taken home with her was, as she had expected, not all that he appeared. But there was so much she wanted to ask now, so many questions that she needed to have answers to.

Timothy shifted again and he became his young adult self. He stepped forward towards the confused Raven and gently reached out his hand. Raven was startled when she noticed that he had gently placed his hands on her shoulders and she was even more so when he leaned down, because he was slightly taller than she was, and kissed her on the forehead. Slowly Raven put her hand up to where he had kissed and realized that she had woken up.

---

When the other titans woke up they found Raven and Timothy already awake. Raven had apparently tried to make Timothy breakfast because Timothy had a plate of semi-burnt pancakes in front of him. Timothy seemed to be enjoying them though and that made Raven happy, though it confused the others. As the other titans sat at the table to eat Timothy moved further and further away from them, apparently still frightened by them.

"I just don't get it," Beast Boy said. "Why is he still afraid of us?"

"A green boy who only looks slightly human, a tall girl with very long red hair and bright green eyes, a kid wearing a mask and cape, and a half human half robot... yeah, what's not to be afraid of?" Cyborg replied.

"But Raven is the darkest and most frightening of all of us." Starfire said. "Why does he like her so much?"

Raven glanced over at Starfire, fire in her eyes but she let it go and looked back at Timothy as he crunched through another blackened pancake.

"What I am worried about is the next time there is trouble." Robin said. "It isn't like we can bring him with us..."

"I agree." Raven said turning to look at the others. "But it isn't like we can leave him here alone either..."

"So what do you propose we do then?" Robin asked.

"Ooh, we could get him a nanny." Beast Boy said. "Or Cyborg could _make_ him a nanny..."

Cyborg glanced at Beast Boy, considering whether or not to say anything. Finally he said, "We have him go to school."

Everyone considered that for a moment, but after a minute they looked at each other and began laughing. "Never mind," Cyborg said still laughing.

"I still say we can't bring him with us." Robin said. "It isn't so much that he would get in the way..."

"It's just that we wouldn't want him to get hurt." Raven finished. "I understand, but what can we do about it?"

The alarm went off and everyone jumped up. "Well we will have to decide fast." Robin said over the alarm.

Raven turned to face Timothy and got his attention. He looked at her attentively, his eyes wide in innocence. "Timothy, I want you to stay here. Stay in this room, ok?"

Timothy nodded and Raven was only slightly surprised but they were in to much of a hurry for her to really think about it. Quickly she ran after the others leaving Timothy alone in the living room. As she got into the T-Car she thought about it for a second but Robin interrupted her thoughts by saying, "A bank is being robbed, the criminals haven't been identified yet."

"Is it possible that it isn't a super-villain this time?" Beast Boy asked. "There hasn't been a simple burglary for a while."

In the city Beast Boy's theory was being disproved as a gang of five people walked out of the bank that was being robbed. The first was a huge, muscular man wielding two high-tech rocket launchers. The man had a slight five o' clock shadow and was wearing an army-camouflage shirt and baggy army pants. On his back was an equally huge backpack full of ammunition. The second person was a woman slightly shorter than the first man holding C4 triggers and a backpack full of C4. She was wearing next to nothing but a thin black tank top and black shorts; around her neck was a small black pendant. The third was a short round man holding two comically large semi-machine guns. The machine guns were about half the size of the man and their clips extended into his backpack. He was wearing sunglasses, a t-shirt, and grey sweatpants. The fourth was a kid holding a red-golden baseball bat. The kid was wearing a blue baseball cap with a logo that looked like an 'L', a sweatshirt and baggy sweatpants; he was riding on blood red rollerblades. And the final one was a tall thin man wearing a white suit stepped out of the bank. He was holding a tall thin cane that had a rather large crystal on it. There were a number of terrified civilians carrying money bags that were following them towards an armored car.

The T-Car came to a halt a short distance away and the Teen Titans jumped out of it, each in their fighting stance. The gang of five stopped ushering the civilians with money bags to their armored car and turned to face the titans. They sneered as they saw the children in their costumes standing in their fighting stances looking serious.

"Hey boss, I think these here children wanna try and stop us." The man carrying the rocket launchers said pointing one at the titans.

"We will stop you." Robin said. "Titans GO!"

The titans rushed the criminals and the fight began. Robin started for the man with the rocket launchers but the kid with the bat moved between them and said, "Oh no, why don't you fight me."

"You're on." Robin said and started a jump kick.

The kid disappeared abruptly as Robin moved through he air but reappeared next to him and swung the bat into Robin's side. Startled Robin didn't try to block the bat and was knocked off balance and he flew into a wall. The kid moved, quickly, over to the wall and swung his bat down onto Robin, who caught it this time and ducked out from under the swing. Robin yanked the bat and pulled the kid towards him and as soon as the kid was close enough he grabbed the kids arm and threw him into the same wall he had hit.

Meanwhile Beast Boy had morphed into a raptor and was circling the short man with machine guns. The fat man sneered and cocked the gun at Beast Boy; one shot sent Beast Boy flying with a small scale explosion. Stunned Beast Boy shook his head and jumped back up, this time morphing into a triceratops. He charged the squat man and was hit with a barrage of small explosive bullets. The short man cocked his other gun at Beast Boy and a lick of flame flew into his charging face. The flame stuck and Beast Boy continued into the wall of a near buy building.

Cyborg had been chosen by the rocket launcher man and was currently exploding the missiles with his sonic blast. The tall man smiled and loaded a blue rocket into one of the launchers and fired it. This time as Cyborg shot it an electromagnetic wave pulsed through the air and somehow Cyborg was able to dodge it before his circuits were fried. Angry at the dirty trick Cyborg rushed the man and grabbed one of the launchers but just as he was about to break it a pendant around the man's neck began to glow and Cyborg found himself flying backward.

Starfire had taken on the woman and had quickly discovered that C4 could be very painful. As the woman threw the packages at her she threw her starbolts at the packages and the woman. They collided and a small explosion rippled from where they had been. The woman was flying upward in the air, apparently unharmed but Starfire was already through a wall of the building behind where the woman had been. Dazed she shook her head and looked up at the woman and the five packages of C4 that were coming at her. Startled she flew up as fast as she could and just missed the explosion, but was hit by the collapsing building...

The leader, who was the man in white, had decided to take on Raven. He tapped his cane on the ground and a light flew along the ground towards Raven. Not knowing what to expect Raven didn't move but when the light hit her she felt an electric burning sensation ripple through her body. When the feeling subsided she noticed another line of light heading her way and jumped into the air.

"Let's see you get me now." She called down at the man.

"Very well them, my dear." The man replied and tapped his came on the ground again.

The man passed the cane from his right hand to his left and a ball of brilliant white light appeared in his right hand. This he aimed at Raven and she quickly pulled up her shadow shield. The light flew at her and hit her shadow dispersing it and continuing again she felt the burning electrical shock as the light flew across her body and she fell from the air...


	3. Solution to a bad day

Sorry, I would have submitted the third chapter earlier except for some reason when I placed the chapters online a while ago I somehow forgot to place this one, and for some reason I was unable to do so earlier... I'll be short, enjoy.

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It apparently was a bad idea for them to leave Timothy alone in the tower. He hadn't stayed in the common room as he had been asked but instead had made his way down to the basement beyond where the T-Car had been parked. Once in the basement he found a doorway leading into the solid rock ground and opened it. The doorway led to a tunnel that the titans had build a while ago in honor of Terra. The tunnel led down to the cave in which Terra still stood as a statue. 

Timothy followed the tunnel into the cavern and up to Terra's stone body. Gently he placed his hand on the cold stone and opened his mouth. A sound escaped his opened mouth but it wasn't any real form of speech. Even so a small light passed from his hand into the stone illuminating it a brilliant white. After a few seconds the white turned into a golden red and began to ripple off of the stone almost like flame. A few more seconds and the stone began to melt like ice, but before it could get anywhere Timothy looked directly above him and gasped.

On the surface Raven had fallen to the ground, hard, and was trying to get her body to move. The light had not only hurt but had also sapped her energy. Her sluggish movements were pitiful, even when compared to the slow movements of the man with the cane. As the battle raged on around them the man slowly walked towards her, a wicked grin crossing his face. Every so often one of the other titans would be flung towards them but each time they would bounce off of a spherical shield that was invisibly enclosing Raven and the man.

"This I will enjoy, my dear."

"Not if I can do anything about it." Raven said glairing at the man.

"Oh, but you can't. You can't even move." The man said, his wicked smile broadening. "But even if you could I could simply stop you with this crystal." He pointed at the large crystal on his cane. "I can do anything with this." he pointed it at her and she began to lift into the air, her hands and feet being pulled from her body until they were straining.

Raven quivered in pain, a moan escaping her mouth. At the same moment a crack was heard from outside of the bubble. The man turned and saw a flame of brilliant white light. The crystal on his cane began to burn with the same light as did the pendants on the other four people.

As the light began to dim a teen of about fourteen appeared. He was wearing a long silvery cape and a silvery tunic under it. His hair was very long and a golden blond that shined in the brilliant white light. Both of his eyes were closed but as he straightened his body into a standing position they shot open. Suddenly he was moving so fast that for a second Raven and the old man lost track of him. He reappeared between Robin and the boy with the bat.

"If you are going to be a criminal at least be creative and not copy something you saw on television, slugger." The teenager said, his voice nearly lifeless and cold, and pulled the bat from the kid's hands. The kid jumped back and pulled out a pendant which he directed at the teen. The teen laughed and said, "If you really think that will work you are welcome to try."

The kid pushed the pendant at the teen and a light began to shine with a shadow flame. The flame focused on one point and a beam came out of it, which the teen dodged easily. Startled the boy did it again and again the teen dodged it, but this time the teen held the bat so that it was hit. The bat began to burn with a dark flame like the pendant and the teen moved to hold the bat like a sward. With one quick move the teen slashed through the kid and the kid fell backward. As Raven watched in horror the bat moved _through_ the kid's body and there was a sickening crack, then a blood curtailing scream. Raven tried to turn away but just before she did she saw a shadow begin to come out the kid's back. The shadow looked like the kid but slightly transparent and with no color. The bat quickly followed the shadow and the kid fell to the ground as the shadow flew into a building.

"I tried to warn him." The teen said and disappeared again.

This time he reappeared between Beast Boy and the squat man with the ridiculously large guns. They hadn't heard the scream, or noticed anything different, so they were still fighting, at least until the realized that someone was between them. The squat man snickered but then noticed the bat and his face grew dark, he aimed his gun at the teen and began firing.

"Your friend tried something similar." The teen said. "It didn't work." As he spoke the bat was moving at an incredible speed and all of the explosives were being stopped a few feet in front of the teen. "I'll make this quick." The teen said and rushed the squat man. The same thing happened as before as the shadow figure was impaled by the bat but the body was left on the ground. The teen flicked the bat up and the shadow flew into the air.

After a second Raven realized that once again he had disappeared and looked to find him between Cyborg and the rocket launchers. Two of the rockets were in either hand and after a second he squeezed, detonating the rockets. Through the smoke of the explosion the teen appeared and his hand flew into the muscular man's stomach. With one quick slash up the shadow figure was ripped out of the man and he fell to the ground. After discarding the shadow the teen disappeared again and an explosion was heard from where Starfire was flying.

Raven looked towards the sound and saw the teen was in front of Starfire and smoke was trailing from his hands. There was a bright flash and a scream as the teen charged the woman and after a second Raven saw that he was holding the shadow figure out by the neck as the woman collapsed on the ground. A moment's hesitation and the shadow was discarded like the others.

Now the teen was walking calmly towards Raven and her captor. The man spat on the ground, his teeth grinding. "How dare you!" the old man yelled. "How dare you!"

"I understand your anger." The teen said his voice cold as ever. "But only because you have something that doesn't belong to you."

"Oh, you mean this?" the old man said holding up the cane. "Well you aren't going to get it."

"Really..." the teen retorted. "And what is going to stop me?"

The old man tapped his cane against the ground and a beam of light moved towards the teen. Just before it hit him he swung his hand and the beam was deflected. Furious and confused the old man tried it again but the same thing happened. Now fuming and perhaps foaming at the mouth the old man swung his cane into the air and tapped the top against the ground. He raised the cane again and the amulets from the necklaces the others had been wearing flew to the cane. Sneering the old man ripped the crystal off of the cane and held it in both hands.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." the teen said. "You won't be able to come back."

"So what?" the old man said. "I won't need to, I will have unlimited power!"

"Not with that crystal." The teen said crossing the threshold of the shield that the old man had put around him and Raven. "You would need much more to have _unlimited_ power."

The old man spat again and squeezed the crystals together. A dark shadow flame burst through his hands and ran up his arms engulfing him in a dark flame. The man began to lift into the air and he pointed one of his hands at the teen. "Now DIE!" the old man said, his voice more like the crackling of fire than a human voice.

A pitch black flame erupted from the old man's hand and shot at the teen. Raising both hands the teen stopped the flame but some of the backlash flew towards Raven. The teen sidestepped and blocked the flame, since Raven still found herself unable to move. Slowly the teen clapped both hands together; then spread his arms creating another shield around Raven.

"Ah, I see. So you are protecting this girl are you?" the old man said. "Then _she_ will die!"

A dark flash of flame streaked around as the man floated quickly behind the teen and Raven. The old man lifted both hands into the air and a huge ball of shadow flame burst through. Moving both arms down the old man threw the ball at Raven and the teen jumped through the shield and into the flame. There was a blood curdling scream as the teen was engulfed in flame and a lick of shadow burst from both his eyes and his mouth.

Raven felt brilliant warmth run through her body as she saw the teen sacrifice himself to save her and she suddenly realized that she was covered in a brilliant white light. The flame surrounding her seemed to move her towards the teen and she felt herself get up. In one quick movement she was at the teen's side, her hands on his shoulders. The flame from her and the flame from the teen appeared to fight as the teen screamed facing upward, flame still shooting out of his mouth and eyes.

Suddenly it was over and the teen dropped to the ground the shadow flame gone. Yet the white flame still surrounded Raven and the dark flame sill surrounded the old man. In a scream of fury the old man flung both arms at Raven, the flame escaping his body and completely flying at her. Suddenly Timothy was there as he jumped between Raven and the jet of shadow flame. Timothy swung his arms in front of him as the flame hit him and Raven saw the old man's body fall to ashes on the ground. Timothy flew into Raven the flame spreading around them but not touching Raven. Through the heat of the shadows Raven saw the other titans fall to the ground as the shields collapsed, sending shockwaves across the street. Finally Raven collapsed on the ground and passed out.

When she awoke Raven saw the titans standing around her. They were all alright except for a few bruises but as she got up and found Timothy lying next to her she realized that the worst had hit him. The entire front of his body was charred black and he wasn't breathing. Quickly Raven moved her hands over Timothy and began trying to heal him. She could feel some of the wounds mending but most of them were not and she could only feel a thread of life from within him.

"We have to get him to a hospital!" Raven yelled.

The others turned away and tears were coming to Starfire's eyes. Raven knew what it meant, she knew that he couldn't be saved as soon as she saw him jumping to save her but she couldn't accept that he would die. It wasn't fair, it couldn't happen... it couldn't. Focused and determined Raven continued to try and head Timothy but she could feel that it wasn't doing anything.

"Raven, it won't help..." Robin said. "He was hit by the full force of that attack. Nothing could have survived that."

"But I did, and I was directly behind him." Raven said tears beginning to flow to her eyes.

"Raven, you may have been able to survive, without a scratch, but he..." Cyborg trailed off.

"What I don't understand is what happened to that other kid." Beast Boy said. "The teen, I mean."

"Yes," Starfire agreed. "Where did he go?"

Robin pointed to a scorch mark and the ashes that were scattered around it. It was where the teen had been and it was plain and obvious that that was the remains of him. He had saved the others but had sacrificed himself in the process... a true hero. One of two who had done so for the titans.

Something in the pile of ash glinted in the light and Robin bent to pick it up. What he found was a pure white crystal orb. There crystal was completely clear and there was a white shine around it, almost like a small flame. Robin held it up to the light to get a better look but as he did so it fell from his hand and dropped to the ground at Raven's side. The crystal cracked down the middle and when Raven picked it up shattered. An intense white flame shot up from the fragments and the titans, except for Raven, jumped back as the flame flew into Timothy. As the flame subsided they were all able to see that Timothy had been completely healed.

"What happened?" Beast Boy asked.

"I don't know." Robin said. "How did we get _here_? Where are the bank thieves?"

As he asked this question the others noticed that four of the five gang members were trying to sneak off with the cash they had stolen. Robin and the others dashed after them but Raven stayed behind and looked curiously at Timothy. The others may have forgotten what had just happened, at least that was what appeared to have happened, but she still remembered the entire event. The teen; Timothy's sacrifice, all of it...

After the others caught the criminals they headed back to the tower and Raven placed Timothy in the infirmary. He hadn't yet woken up and Raven was still worried; she knew he was alive and recovering but still, it would have been better if he were awake. At least then she could talk with him...

Later that night Raven went to bed and quickly fell asleep. Again she found herself surrounded by clouds of colors. Very quickly she remembered what had happened in the previous dream and she looked around for the older Timothy. After a few seconds she noticed that a change was happening far below her and she focused on it.

Far below Raven the colored clouds were swirling in circles and slowly becoming solid. As she watched the clouds began for form a ground, grass and dirt along with a few flowers. Slowly the transformation spread throughout the dreamscape and as she watched she saw a small valley appear and a stream cut its way through the valley. On the outskirts of the valley, which was no more than a hundred yards in diameter, a forest was constructed. The forest raised as mountains were formed and a light fog appeared around them.

After a second Raven blinked and she found herself on the ground. She looked at the mountaintops, which were only a couple of stories higher than the small valley she was in. Beyond the mountains she saw gentle clouds and directly above her she could see nearly clear blue sky. The stream was trickling gently to Raven's right and she noticed that to her left, on a small hill in the center of the valley, stood a large tree.

"It's beautiful." Raven said to herself.

"I was hoping you would think so." The older Timothy's voice traveled down to her from behind the tree.

Raven looked directly at the tree and noticed that she could see part of Timothy sticking out from behind the tree. She walked up the small hill and around the tree; when she was able to see him he greeted her with a bow of his head and a motion for her to sit. A blanket had been laid out for them to sit on and Raven sat on the blanket in front of Timothy.

"You still have many questions." Timothy said, his voice flowing rhythmically and matter-of-factly. "I can answer some of them but not all."

"Ok," Raven said. "Why are you so different now? When you are awake you don't speak at all and you seem so... innocent."

"Well, though I can not truthfully say that I _am_ innocent, you are correct in thinking so. The 'Timothy' you know in the waking, or material, world knows almost nothing. I know almost everything that I knew before that happened to us. Because Timothy only really knows how to walk and eat he truly is innocent and the love he feels for you runs deep." The older Timothy stopped there for a second so Raven could process the word 'love'. "I can remember nearly everything from before and I am able to see and understand more than he is... most of the things Timothy and I feel are the same and the difference is only made up in the knowledge that I have and the power that I control."

"Timothy loves me?" Raven asked, apparently still stuck on that. "Loves me... does that mean-"

"We share the same emotions, though he is only able to experience the more shallow side of each. As he grows he will begin remembering things again..." the older Timothy said. "As his powers and energies return his memories will. They will not always make sense because we have many memories that extend over a long time but one memory that will always remain will be you..."

Raven had been blushing slightly at what the older Timothy had said before and the red on her face increased at this. She was feeling warm and in a peaceful state of joy as her face continued to brighten. Rarely had Raven felt this way before, at least not like this and certainly not to this extent. This was a new experience for her and, normally, her powers would have been flaring along with her emotions but they seemed to be gently suppressed by something.

"Why me?" Raven managed to ask, her voice cracking slightly. "Why me?"

"Because of who you are, Raven. You _were_ born of darkness but you wished to be something better, you wished to help people even when it would have been easier to do otherwise. You hoped for more and you brought it to yourself. You are strong, not only in power but in spirit." He paused and took a deep breath. "You are full of love and joy, both of which yearn to be released but are repressed because of your powers. You are kind and caring, both of which are not shown as much as they are because you have to keep your powers in check. You are smart and witty, which you commonly show off. You _are_ beautiful, both inside and out but you feel you must hide from others... many parts of these would quickly attract anyone, but all of it together is a very wonderful package."

"I... I... Really?" Raven stuttered. "I don't know what to say."

"I wish to tell you now, for it may come up a number of times, I am not like the dragon trapped within the book. I ask nothing of you but what you already provide, and what you _choose_ to provide. I whish your happiness; not necessarily your help." The older Timothy said shifting his weight as he spoke. "Your help would be appreciated in the process of regaining what has been lost to me, though, and I would try to repay you as best I could."

"How could I help?" Raven asked, spellbound by the older Timothy's words.

"I cannot say right now. You are under the influence of my words and would likely agree to nearly anything. When I ask your help I want you to have a clear mind for I wish to not take advantage of you." he paused and began getting up. "Raven, in the end I wish to give you something that will make you either very happy or very sad. I wish it to give you joy rather than sorrow but even I cannot truly predict which it will bring." He stood and knelt in front of Raven, his head just above hers; Raven closed her eyes. Slowly he bent down and gently kissed her on the forehead just as she opened her eyes. She looked around and realized that she had woken up.


	4. Terra: A Rebirth

Well, I'm impressed, out of the 80 people who have read the first chapter at least 28 have gone on to the next chapter, and from there at leat 13 read the third chapter. Thank you, I am very pleased. Keep reading and I'll continue to update this story.

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After she got up and dressed Raven went to the infirmary to see how Timothy was. As she entered the room Timothy sat up and turned to face her. Raven sighed in relief to see that he was awake and alert, completely recovered from yesterday. She walked over to the bed he was in and helped him out. As Timothy got to his feet he stumbled and nearly fell over, Raven, still holding onto him, caught him and helped him up. After a few seconds Timothy was able to stand on his own again. 

The two walked down to the common room to get breakfast. They entered the common room and Timothy sat down as Raven began her tea and pulled out a pan to make something for Timothy. She cracked an egg and poured it into the pan and set to work. Timothy looked around the room from the table and noticed that the television was on. There was static on the screen as Timothy watched and he moved his body so that he was facing the television.

Raven turned around to check on Timothy and found that he wasn't there. She looked around the room but still couldn't find him. She was about to leave the room but the phone rang and she picked it up. "Hello?" she asked.

On the other end she heard a snicker and an all too familiar voice said "Seven day-hey how did you get in here." It was Control Freak, but something seemed to be happening that he hadn't expected. "Look little kid, I don't know how you got here but I know you are about to leave." There was a few seconds of silence and he said, "What's the matter, cat got your tongue? … Hey, don't touch that. Stop! No, what are you doing! Stop!" the line went dead but for a moment Raven could have sworn she heard Control Freak moan, "My remote..."

She hung up the phone and noticed that the television was on. As she moved to turn it off she saw Timothy sitting in his chair, a very pleased look on his face. She turned to look at him for a second and then said, "Did you do that?"

Timothy nodded, grinning and Raven laughed. "How did you do it?" In response Timothy stood up and walked over to the television; then put a hand up to it. His hand passed through the screen and to the other side. Suddenly Raven understood what had happened. Control Freak, ever the movie addict, had decided to copy a movie, using a technology he had previously come up with. He had probably planned to enter television and exit directly inside of Titans Tower.

Raven shook her head to clear it and wondered how she knew this. Timothy hadn't spoken and it wasn't really like her to deduct things so easily... so had she read Timothy's mind or was it something else?

The other titans began filing in, rubbing the sleep out of their eyes and yawning. They had either gone to bed much later than her last night, or they really _weren't_ morning birds. Raven quickly removed the food she had been preparing for Timothy and brought it over to him as the others took over the kitchen section of the common room. Timothy happily began eating, but paused and offered some of it to Raven looking at her with his wide innocent eyes.

"No thank you." Raven replied. "I only drink tea in the morning."

Timothy wordlessly pushed a cup towards her and Raven took it. She found tea inside the cup and drank it. It was the same kind she had been making, but she didn't remember seeing Timothy get up to get the cup... it didn't matter though, it wasn't like she would be able to get over to the pot at the moment anyway. Wordlessly Raven and Timothy sat eating or drinking as they watched the groggy titans make themselves breakfast.

---

After everyone was done with breakfast the others went gone off to do their things: Beast Boy and Cyborg were playing video games, Robin was practicing his martial arts and Starfire was walking the resident mutant larva. Raven found a quiet and serene place in the tower to meditate. She and Timothy sat down and Raven began to meditate. After about a second Raven felt a gentle tug on her cape and she opened her eyes. Timothy was looking at her, eyes as wide as ever.

"I'm meditating." Raven told him. "It is something that I have to do every day to keep my emotions under control or my powers won't be."

Timothy wordlessly walked around and stood in front of her. Raven was currently floating and her legs were just under his chin as he looked up into her face. He closed his eyes and sighed; then, after about a second or two, he began to lift into the air as well. Raven was surprised, but she had some how expected this; then as Timothy moved himself into the same sitting position that Raven was in she smiled to herself and they began meditating together.

Raven closed her eyes and began rhythmically saying 'Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos.' She calmed her mind and envisioned herself floating in the void of space. This was what she usually did for meditation but this time something was different, as she continued to meditate she found herself being brought to a field deep within the mountains. As she looked around she realized that she had been there before and the dreams from the past two nights came back in a flash.

Raven stood up and walked around. She was sure that if she was there then Timothy must be as well. Sure enough she found him sitting out on the calm water of a small pool, or lake, which she hadn't seen before. She walked up to the edge and looked out at him. Something was different, he wasn't the adult that he had been in her dreams, but the child that he was while awake. Was it possible that the mind of the child had followed her into the place where the mind of the adult had brought her?

"Timothy?" Raven called out to him.

Timothy opened his eyes and moved his right hand to wave. The water rippled beneath him as he moved but the ripples were gentle. After a moment Timothy motioned Raven to come to him and after a moment's hesitation Raven tried to levitate over the water, but she found that she was unable to and after a second try she fell onto the water. Expecting a splash of cold water she braised herself but instead she felt a rush and opened her eyes. Her body was lying on the water, not floating but lying as though the water was solid. Unsure of how she was doing this without levitating she lifted herself up and started walking over to Timothy. As soon as she was in front of him she sat down the same as she had been while meditating.

"Timothy," Raven started. "Something has been bothering for a while." She paused but when Timothy didn't say anything she continued. "You don't talk, I know that this is because you have lost your memories, and yet you understand what I say... You do understand me, right?"

Timothy nodded.

"And you really can't speak?"

Timothy nodded again.

"So then why can you understand me?"

Timothy stared into Raven's eyes, a deep longing look in them. Raven felt as though he would speak if he could but it simply wasn't possible, he didn't know how to speak. Because he was experiencing life for the first time, having lost all but a few of his memories he could cognitively do little more than the basic functions that his body would allow. Speech was a complex thing that took years to develop, and it had left him but walking, eating and so forth had stayed...

Raven shook her head as though she had just come out of a daze. This was the second time today she had known things that she shouldn't have. How was this happening? _Was_ she reading Timothy's mind or _was_ it something else?

"Timothy, is there a way for you to communicate?"

Again that long deep stare. Raven felt this time it was almost as though he really would speak, and yet he remained silent. Instead she felt as though something else should happen, something that she should be able to recognize... something so basic that it would be almost as though she was thinking to herself... and then she knew what it was. He was communicating to her, _through her own thoughts_.

"I get it! So that was what was happening, you were speaking to me using my thoughts." Raven said. "A kind of telepathy."

Timothy nodded and continued to look at Raven with the same look. This time Raven was prepared when the stream of thought came to her. Timothy wished to be able to communicate, he could through a means that all living organisms had, and for him it was stronger, but most other sentient beings couldn't decipher this kind of language. Their minds were too complicated, too untamed for them to realize that the thoughts were not their own. Because of this Timothy had been unable to talk to the other titans... well, that wasn't entirely true. He had spoken to Beast Boy on the first day; that was how Beast Boy knew what to do.

Timothy had also tried to speak to the others on the first day but their minds were far too uncomprehending before and after they forgot what had happened. But before Raven had, at one point, been able to hear and understand what Timothy had said, and in that moment the light, opposite of the darkness which had consumed him first, was able to enter her. She had saved him, and possibly everyone else, by hearing and obeying what she was told to do; for a moment's use of her body. Because of this when Timothy woke up and found that he was unable to communicate with anyone around him he was still able to remember what Raven had done for the light and had not been afraid of her.

"But I would have thought that you still would have been afraid of me." Raven said. "After all I attacked you."

But that wasn't the case. Within Timothy the light and the dark were supposed to be balanced. For Timothy to be alive they _must_ both exist, and when the darkness tried to take over he was closer to death than when they had been fighting outside of his body. When Raven attacked with the light she had forced some of it back into his body...

"Wait, _some_ of the light? What about the rest?"

The rest of the light was still within Raven. It could not all be transferred at once because part of Raven was missing. If the light left then bad things would happen... her powers would become out of control again. With the light in her she had complete control of her powers...

"But what is missing?" Raven asked.

What was missing was something special, something her father had never given her. It was a part of her soul that, as the portal for Trigon, she would never need. It was something that nearly all other living entities had.

"What is it?"

Something that she would be able to regain, even without the light in her. Something that her friends nearly gave her... something that she longed for more than anything, and yet she didn't know it.

"But what is missing?" Raven asked. "What _is it_?"

Something that Timothy couldn't give her... not yet. Something that he hoped to give her some day... something...

"WHAT?" Raven finally yelled, frustrated.

"La... la... lov..." Timothy struggled to form the sounds. "Love."

"Love?" Raven asked shocked. "Love? But... but..."

Somewhere an alarm was going off. Raven could hear it but she couldn't _hear_ it. She knew it was there, she knew it was important and... she opened her eyes. Red lights were flashing all over the tower. Something was wrong.

Quickly Raven stood up and looked over at Timothy. Timothy was lying on the floor, apparently unconscious. Raven quickly grabbed Timothy and, through her shadow, brought them both to the infirmary. She gently placed Timothy on the bed and hurried to find the others and see why the alarm had gone off.

---

What was happening was as Cyborg was beating Beast Boy in their game the screen had suddenly gone blank and, yet again, a little blue dot appeared. This time Control Freak took no time for introductions but instead called Beast Boy for a rematch, unless, of course, he was chicken. Beast Boy had started saying 'I'm not chicken!' when Robin had walked in and, seeing Control Freak on the television, had hit the alarm. Just as Beast Boy was starting to say the word 'chicken' the alarm went off and, startled, he had turned into a chicken.

"Dude, don't do that!" Beast Boy said once he was human again.

The titans in the room turned back to the television and saw that Control Freak was doubled over with laughter. Once he had stopped laughing Beast Boy said, "You're on. Name the time and the place and I'll be there."

"How about here, and now." Control Freak said stepping out of the screen.

Beast Boy jumped back screaming and hid behind the couch as the others stared at the screen in awe. Just as Control Freak walked out of the screen Raven had entered the room and she had seen him step into reality. "Didn't see that coming..." she muttered to herself remembering what had happened that morning.

"How did you do that?" Cyborg asked.

"That's a secret." Control Freak said putting his right hand back into the monitor, which had been static but changed back to the Robot fighting game as he put his hand into it. Control Freak grabbed one of the robots and pulled it forward bringing it into the room with them. Once there it stopped moving, until Control Freak pointed his hand at it, at which point it started attacking.

The titans fought back as the robot destroyed the room. They all attacked it and within a few seconds it was down. Once they were sure they had destroyed it they looked back up at Control Freak and grinned. Control Freak grinned back and pulled out the second robot, which was destroyed as soon as it had left the screen. Now nervous Control Freak began backing up and jumped into the television screen, the titans quickly following behind him.

---

Timothy slowly got up and grabbed his head. He had a wicked migraine and his head was swimming... must be what it's like to have a hangover, Timothy figured. He straightened himself into a sitting position and looked around. Raven was gone and he appeared to be back in the infirmary. Raven must have found him unconscious after she snapped out of her meditation and brought him there. But that didn't explain where she was.

Timothy pushed himself out of the bed and onto his feet, but as he stood his head began spinning and he almost immediately fell over. Timothy closed his eyes and lay on the floor as waves of nausea swept over his body. After a few seconds he began feeling better; he opened his eyes and tried to stand again. As soon as he was in a sitting position his eyes blurred and he fell back to the ground, nausea ripping through his mind.

After a few moments Timothy relaxed and tried to tackle this problem in a different way. Slowly, as the nausea faded, he stood up again but this time his eyes were closed. As he stood a brief wave of nausea swept over him but it faded quickly. Once standing he turned his body to face the direction he believed his bed was in. After taking two cautious steps forward he felt the bed nudging against his legs and placed his hand down to touch it.

With his hand still on the bed he started walking to the wall his left hand out in front of him. When he reached the wall he placed his right hand on it and his left hand out in front of him again. Timothy made his way around the room this way; in the end he managed to avoid all of the objects that he could knock over or hurt himself on. Once he reached the door he put continued tracing the walls. Eventually he found some stairs and slowly walked down them; when he reached the bottom of the stairs he found that there were no longer walls around him to grab onto. He continued walking forward and eventually ran into a door. Past the door and down a few feet the walls turned into stone and he knew where he was.

As Timothy continued to walk down the stone corridor and into the cave where Terra stood he eventually removed both hands from the walls. He walked down to the exact place where Terra stood and gently placed his hands on her statue. With both hands placed on the statue Timothy began focusing and a small white light began to shine around him. Slowly the light grew brighter and passed from Timothy to the statue; around the statue the light began to emanate like fire and the white began to tint into a golden red color.

Timothy focused harder and harder and as his efforts became stronger four stubs began to appear on his back. Then as the light around his body began to take on a golden shine the stubs stretched out and from beneath his cape four wings grew. The top two wings were bat like, flesh and fir, but the bottom pair were feathered and almost angelic. The wings extended outward and stretched, the light shining around them as well. Then with one final burst the stone around Terra's body shattered, yellow light illuminating through them from Terra's body.


	5. The terrors of destruction

Not sure if I've already stated this but if anyone notices any errors in what I write, grammatical, spelling, content, e-mail me and I may correct it. If I do correct it I'll give you credit for the correction either on my profile page or at the end of the chapter, or both. My e-mail is on my profile page. Thanks, and enjoy.

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Off in the dark void of limbo Terra floated between life and death; between consciousness and sleep. She had been this way for a very long time, since her last battle against Slade. As the magma congealed around her body her unconscious mind made one last attempt to save her life. With a release of all of her energy she had created a small barrier around herself but in the process had been put into a coma. Years had passed and she had remained in the state she was still in. But now something different was happening, she was waking up. She could feel life being breathed back into her body, but she was still tabbed within the stone. Suddenly she felt completely recharged, she felt better and stronger than she had ever felt before. She focused on the stone around her and pushed; with very little force the stone shattered and she was free. 

As she entered the living world again she gasped for breath and fell to her knees. Everything that had happened to her before she was trapped within the stone flashed before her and as she remembered what she had done tears came to her eyes. She had betrayed her friends, and for what, a misunderstanding? It wasn't fair...

But now she had a chance to repent. She could make it up to them by coming to their aid. All she had to do was open her eyes and get up. So she did, and what she found was a little boy looking at her, eyes wide and innocent. The boy had a smile so wide that it was almost like he had just gotten the best present ever.

"Who are you?" Terra asked.

Terra suddenly felt as though this was not the proper question to ask. Instead she should ask, "Where are the titans?"

The boy took her hand and pulled her along as he ran out of the cave and up a passage way that hadn't been there when she had been alive before. As they moved through the tunnel Terra realized that they were moving towards the ocean, and probably the tower. She realized that the titans must have built the tunnel to be able to visit her easily.

Suddenly they were out of the tower and in the basement of Titans Tower. The boy dragged her up the stairs and finally into the common room of the tower. The television was on but it was full of static. The boy pulled her across the room but halfway there he fell to the floor and put his hands over his head. Terra stopped running and looked at the little boy. The way he was lying it was almost as if he had suddenly become very dizzy.

The boy, still suffering, began dragging himself across the floor towards the television screen. Suddenly Terra understood: the titans were somehow 'on the other side' of the screen and the boy and Terra had to get to them. Terra shook her head clearing it and wondering how she knew this, but she knew it and there was no time to ask questions. She grabbed the boy and jumped into the screen, completely expecting to smash through the glass and fall out the other side. Instead there was a jolt and a rush and when Terra opened her eyes she found herself in a world like no other.

---

The titans had followed Control Freak through the portal of the screen and back into what they expected to be television land. What they found was something far more frightening. The world they appeared in was a mix of warped physics and twisted reality. Everything on television, or anything else for that matter, was here. Videos, movies, video games, even books had come to life in this world. But such control of stories was obviously dangerous as rips, tears, and cracks in space, time and reality as the titans knew it flowed through this space like wheat in a wheat field. There wasn't a single place where the ground was stable for more than ten feet and as the worlds of stories collided they created small shockwaves that rippled through all space around them.

"What on earth?" Robin asked.

"I don't think we're on earth any more Toto." Raven said as Beast Boy turned into a small dog.

"You can say that again." Cyborg said. "Even _I_ can't tell where we are. My sensors say one place one second and then change the next."

"Please, what is going on?" Starfire asked looking at their surroundings. "The last time the Control Freak brought us into the 'T' 'V' we moved through it more regularly, but this... this is unlike anything I have ever seen... what is this?"

"I wish I knew." Robin said. "But I know someone we can beat the answers out of. Come on!"

The titans set off through the 'maze' of stories, each one of them 'flying' because physics really didn't mean anything in this place. They passed through many different stories, some books, some movies, a few video games... until they finally reached a place where there was a large mass of stories crushed together, and there, obviously in the center and waiting, was Control Freak.

"He's been waiting for us." Cyborg said.

"That's fine by me." Robin said as he landed on the ground.

As the titans approached Control Freak turned around grinning like a mad man. As he spoke his voice rippled through the space and hit each titan full force. "Welcome titans, to _my_ domain. Here I control everything, even your very existence is as I wish it. Come and battle me, not as the simple nerd that I was but as the _god_ that I have become."

"You may think of yourself as a god but we have taken down things bigger than you!" Robin yelled picking himself up from the ground.

"Ah, yes, Trigon." Control Freak answered. "But not even he could do this." as he finished his sentence he moved a glittering crystalline remote and pointed it at the titans. As he pressed it a bolt of lightening shot out and a shockwave followed, the lightening and shockwave split through the air and hit each titan. As they shook and writhed in pain they felt their bodies being weakened and suddenly four shadow entities ripped out of them. The shadows were not like the ones that Trigon had created but instead were completely consumed in burning shadow. As Raven looked at them she remembered the last time she had fought against something like this...

---

As Terra pulled Timothy through the portal into the other world he felt the nausea worsen and a shockwave of pain ripple through his body. He gasped and shook violently and as Terra landed on the ground he fell from her arms. She tried to pick him up but his body was shaking too violently. Finally she moved the earth beneath him into a bowl shape and they were off, ironically in the same direction the titans had taken.

As she flew through the air Timothy continued to struggle against the pain and nausea. Slowly a shadow crept over his body and he phased through the rock he was being held in. As he fell through the space of that world the shadow crept over his body and began to take control. Screaming silently, because his voice had left him, he fought against the shadow's control. Finally he couldn't hold on any longer and blacked out.

Then something not quite expected happened. A golden ring shot out from Timothy's body followed by a blue and green one. The rings moved so that the golden one was horizontal to his body, the blue was diagonal in one direction and the green was diagonal in the other. The shadow stopped consuming him and a golden red light caught around his hands. As the fire spread up around him fighting back the shadow his body began to grow older. Slowly he became a teenager of about sixteen and his cloths, the tunic and cape became a shining silver. His hair grew longer rapidly and as the color was drained from them a golden tint took hold making his hair appear blond.

Timothy's eyes opened and he straightened himself. Slowly he scanned the area around him, his eyes distant and searching. Then he found what he was looking for and slapping his hands together he opened a rift. He quickly slipped through the rift and was gone...

---

Cyborg dodged and tried to use his sonic cannon again but, even though he was still able to move, he seemed to be out of power. He closed the cannon and tried to punch the burning shadow but simply fell through it felling its cold fire rip through him as he passed through. He tried again and the same happened, but as he fell out the other side the shadow grabbed him and threw him into the air. As he passed Starfire the shadow appeared again above him and stretched out its arm directly at his chest. He slid through the arm and felt a burning cold stab through his heart. He was thrown down and as he fell he glimpsed a small ball of light in the shadow's hand.

Robin dodged left, then right, then left again and heard a thud behind him as Cyborg slammed into the ground. He didn't have time to see if Cyborg was alright as the shadow punched him in the chest sending him flying. The shadow appeared behind him and grabbed his arm, threw him, sending him flying down into the ground and as he was released Robin tried to grab onto the shadow's hand but all he got was a icy burn. As he landed on the hard ground he bounced and was caught by the shadow. He felt a freezing pain as the shadow sliced its arm into his chest and felt the burning grip rip through his heart. As he was thrown to the side he could just barely see a small ball of light in the shadow's hand.

Beast Boy shifted into a raptor and charged the shadow biting it with his razor teeth. He expected to feel something as he bit down but all he got was a flash of cold fire down his throat and felt a hot starbolt hit him on the head. He backed off and changed into ram and again charged the shadow but he passed straight through. Again and again he tried different animals but each time all he got was a cold burning whip of dark fire. Finally, exhausted he fell to the ground as Robin flew over him, and gasped in pain as a burst of cutting cold fire ripped through his chest and tore at his heart. As he rolled over, clutching his chest he saw the shadow gripping a ball of light as it walked away.

Starfire was only able to dodge as Cyborg flew into the air next to her. She charged her starbolts and shot at the shadow but they simply passed through it. The shadow flew at her as she was charging another bolt and she released it at the ground as the shadow ripped through her. She turned, shaking the pain off as she charged another bolt and again the shadow tore through her. She began turning again but felt a cold burning claw rip through her back and the hand of the shadow ripped out the front of her chest, a small glowing ball in it.

Raven watched, helpless as her friends were tortured and fell one by one. She could do nothing to help them because all of the other shadows were holding her down. Tears dripped from her eyes as she saw what she could only assume was each of her friends dying. She pulled and yanked her arms and legs trying to free herself so that she could save her friends but she only got burns and rips in her skin and cloths.

"NO, Beast Boy!" Someone yelled.

Raven opened her eyes and looked to the voice. It was Terra, Terra! She had somehow returned just when they needed her most, or... was it just a cruel illusion? Raven dropped her head again, tears falling from her face and hitting the soft ground. There was a thud as a piece of stone landed on the ground and she heard Terra say, "How dare you! How dare you do this to my friends!"

"Oh, but they aren't your friends are they?" Control Freak asked, his voice mocking. "I can see into your mind, your heart. You betrayed them once, and you will do it again."

"NO!" Terra yelled. "I won't betray them again! Not again!"

Raven looked up, her vision blurred by the tears and screamed as a shadow appeared behind Terra and ripped its clawed arm through her back. Terra gasped and fell to her knees, the arm still through her. A ball of light was in the shadow's hand as it pulled it back through and Terra fell to the ground...

"NO!" Raven screamed in agony and misery.

She felt a hand on her face and fully expected to see Control Freak's snarling face as she opened her eyes but instead she saw the teen. The teen who had died to save her when she was being attacked by the man in white. He was still alive, he was here... he was too late.

"Don't worry." The teen whispered moving his head closer to hers. "Hope is always with you, Raven."

Timothy released her face and turned to look at the shadows. He began walking forward and Raven screamed, "But they will kill you!"

"Dear Raven, I do not intend to die today." The teen replied and moved his right arm up and to his left. One quick thrust down and right and a sward appeared in his hand. He held the sward up and a dazzling white light appeared around the sward. It was then that Raven noticed the three rings around the teen's body and only as they moved around the sward forming a flame of deep blue, pure white and pure leaf green.

The teen disappeared momentarily and reappeared behind one of the shadows that were holding the balls. One quick slice and the shadow split in two; he reached his left hand out, flexed and the shadow disappeared in a brisk wind. The ball of light remained where it had been held and continued floating there as the teen sliced through the second shadow. He continued this until all of the shadows holding balls were gone and only the orbs of light remained. Then he turned to face Control Freak.

"It isn't your time to die yet." The teen said. "So why do you insist on killing yourself?"

"I am not killing myself, it is you, the teen titans, and anyone who wishes to oppose me who will die!" Control Freak, who was now becoming shrouded in shadow flame yelled. "Now DIE!" he pointed the remote, which had also become shadow-like at the teen and pressed the button.

As the flash and shockwave rippled outward the teen sheathed his sward in a sheath that hadn't been there. He placed his right hand forward and blocked the blast, which ripped the ground apart. Raven watched in utter disbelief as this happened, she had honestly expected the teen to die long before now.

The teen swept the blast away and Control Freak grimaced. He pointed his remote again and pressed a series of buttons. This time the blast altered the very fabric of space and time around the teen but again the teen swept the attack away. Frustrated Control Freak squeezed the remote and finally sneered looking over at Raven.

"If I can't kill you I can kill what you came here for." Control Freak said.

"If you even try..." the teen started but he never got the chance to finish as Raven felt a flame stab of ice rip through her body. She looked down in shock and saw not one but six arms through her. The ball was completely covered and she couldn't see any but a splinter of light from it.

"NO!" The teen yelled and rushed over to Raven. "No... it can't be."

Raven slid down the arms as they were pulled backward. She fell into the teen's arms and he held her. As he looked down into her eyes tears fell from his. A sob ripped through his body as he placed his right hand over her chest. "I'm sorry... you were right. I was too late."

"I... it's alright." Raven coughed. "Even if you can't save us stop him."

Raven's eyes closed and the teen gently placed her on the ground...

---

The teen stood up and clutched his hand around an invisible ball. The shadows holding Raven's ball shattered and disappeared leaving the ball where it was. The teen walked over and put his hands gently around the ball; then walked it back over to Raven and gently placed it just above her chest. Then he walked ten steps away from Raven and looked at the laughing Control Freak.

"Death is too good for you." The teen said. "So what I shall give will be far worse."

The teen stretched his arms out and a ring of light appeared at his feet. A sigil flickered in the center but faded and left the circle empty. As the teen stretched the light around his body grew and became a shadow flame engulfed in light. Slowly two stubs appeared in his back and suddenly two wings burst out sending the cape flying into the air. The right wing was feathered on the top and furred on the bottom and the right one was furred on the top and feathered on the bottom. Golden red flame illuminated the teen's eyes and he clapped his hands together.

Control Freak, finally sensing true danger held his remote up to protect him but nothing could block what was to come. A blast equal only to a supernova but focused into a beam three feet in diameter shot at Control Freak and the remote shattered spewing shadow flame over Control Freak. The flame consumed his body and he screamed as his form was reduced to a darkened ring on the ground.

The teen walked over to the ring and placed his hand on it pulling out two crystals. The first was shaded gray but the second one was darker than space. The second crystal the teen thrust back into the ring but the first he cracked and it shattered into thousands of tiny pieces. The pieces became light and flew into the teen but also into the orbs of light floating near the titans.

Finally the teen walked back to the titans and one after another pushed the orbs back into their bodies. As he finished with Raven he stepped back and drew his sward again. One quick slash created a rift within the world they were in. The rift expanded and began to consume the entire space. As it passed over the titans they fell back out of the screen and into their world. Everyone landed comfortably in the common room of Titans Tower, everyone except for Timothy...


	6. Playing with emotions

I am having writer's block right now... I only have a few more stored chapters. Every time the hits reaches 10 for the latest chapter I submit another one... or something like that... Anyway, enjoy.

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As the titans woke up one by one they looked around and found themselves in their living room. At first they were confused but then Beast Boy noticed Terra and everyone, startled at her sudden appearance back in the world of the living, greeted her with joy. When they were all satisfied with their greetings they sat down and Terra explained what had happened. She explained about the little boy she had seen when she escaped the statue; and how she knew she had to help the titans. As she explained how Timothy pulled her towards the screen and collapsed the others began wondering why and as she told them how he had acted when he was in the other world they began to understand. 

"He knew we were in trouble." Robin said. "He wanted to help us even though going into that twisted world hurt him."

Raven knew even more, she remembered how the teen had tried to save her from the shadows. He must have succeeded, but where was Timothy now? Didn't he make it out? Was he still in that other world? The screen was still static, did that mean that the portal was still open?

Raven stood up and walked over to the television screen; as she neared it the static began to move towards the center leaving a blank screen where it had been. Finally as she stepped up next to it there was an electric jolt and Timothy fell out of the portal and Raven caught him. She looked down at the sleeping little boy and smiled.

"Wow, are you being _motherly_?" Terra asked looking over at Raven. "Who is that boy?"

"We found him a few days ago." Robin said and began telling the story. "When we discovered he had no memory we decided to take care of him until his memory returned. Since we didn't know his name we had to come up with one and Raven decided on..."

"Timothy." Raven said. "His name is Timothy."

---

Later that night, after Terra became reacquainted with her room and everyone had gone to bed Raven left her room and walked to the infirmary. She walked to the bed that Timothy was on and gently placed her hand on his cheek. As she did so he continued to lie as still as he had been when she had entered the room. Raven stepped back and moved into a meditative stance: floating in the air, her legs crossed and arms relaxed on her knees.

Within a few seconds Raven was meditating in the image she usually did, dark space with a number of asteroids floating nearby. It was what she was use to but this time she wasn't meditating to gain control of her emotions. She had remembered the last time she had meditated it had been with Timothy and they had met in another image, somewhere in the mountains. She wanted to go there again; she wanted to be sure that Timothy was ok.

She opened her eyes and found herself again in the mountains. Quickly she stood up and began walking around looking for Timothy, or the older Timothy. As she walked around she noticed that something was different about the small lake she had noticed the last time. Floating in the center of the lake was an island of jagged stone. On the stone were two statues one of a tall man who looked like the older Timothy but his face appeared darker, more harassed. The second statue was of a woman who looked oddly familiar to Raven but she hadn't ever seen her before in her life.

Raven walked to the edge of the water and lightly placed the toe of her shoe onto it. It was solid, or as solid as it had been the previous time. Raven stepped out onto the water and walked towards the island. She wanted to get a better view of the statues and see why they looked so familiar. As she walked closer to the island she realized that one of the stones was far too smooth, and lumpy to be part of the rest of the island. Raven began to hurry and was quickly on the small island and looking down at the young Timothy curled into a small ball at the feet of the statues.

"Timothy?" Raven asked. "What's wrong?"

Timothy jumped and uncurled to look at Raven. His eyes were full of tears and it was obvious he had been crying for a while. He opened his mouth to speak but no worlds came from his lips, not even a sound managed to escape. Frustrated Timothy beat his hands on the stone ground and tried again; still he was unable to utter a single sound. Finally he fell into a heap and continued crying.

Raven gently bent down and picked Timothy up. She placed him in her lap and gently placed her right hand on his head to stroke his hair. With her left arm she brought Timothy's body closer to hers in a warm, comforting hug and began to coo. "It's ok... it's ok." Even though she didn't really know what was wrong she felt she needed to do something, and that wasn't from Timothy's form of communication.

"Timothy, it's ok now, I'm here. Tell me... what's wrong?"

Timothy looked into her eyes, his eyes shining with tears; then he looked over at the statues. Raven followed his gaze and noticed something different about the two. Raven could tell that they were special, to Timothy at the very least. The woman had a very strong impression in his mind and the man seemed almost like a protector. She could sense that the man had gone through horrible things, but they only made him stronger. The woman had been there for Timothy almost from the beginning, and yet not. Raven couldn't explain this feeling, but it was as if Timothy knew that these two had a great importance to him but he didn't know why.

"They are trapped." Raven said suddenly, surprising herself.

Timothy nodded slowly and turned to face Raven. She got the overwhelming sense of helplessness and she wasn't sure if it was coming from Timothy or from herself. She knew that Timothy could help the people in the statues, like he did for Terra, though she hadn't really known that before now, but he didn't know how. She also knew that Timothy would ask her for help except there really wasn't anything she could do.

No, Timothy may not think so but Raven disagreed. She could at least Try and help them. Gently Raven put Timothy on the ground and stood up. She faced the statues head on and began to say, "Azarath, Metrion, Zynth-"

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." A familiar voice cut in behind her. "You could do yourself more damage than you know.

Raven turned around and saw the older Timothy standing behind her, or rather floating just above the water. He was holding what looked like a stave in his right hand. The stave started at a point at the bottom but broadened as it moved up. When it reached shoulder height it cut off into two pairs of wings. Around the wings were a number of circular cylinders that were bent in curves from one side of the stave, around the top, and back to the center on the other side. Each cylinder started and ended just below the wings and wrapped around a crystal that was hovering in the center at the top of the stave, just between the wings. Raven thought that the stave was very beautifully made, but poorly designed because it would break easily.

"What do you mean?" Raven asked. "How could I hurt myself by trying to help them?"

"In essence they sacrificed themselves to save Timothy from eternal darkness and malice. When he was in that space that Control Freak had created using the remote he had found the darkness found its chance to take over once again. Fortunately two... good friends were contacted almost directly after we arrived in this universe and they arrived just as the darkness was taking over..." the older Timothy said. "They fought back to darkness and in the process helped Timothy temporarily regain part of his memories and power. He, well let's say he transformed at that point, something he has done before in this universe I believe..."

Suddenly Raven began to understand the truth. "The teen..." she said.

"Yes. As his powers are returned to him his body matures. He will not be able to remember everything until just before the last memory is returned but he will remember enough for his mind to be level with his body." The older Timothy said. "I told you before that I am him, but that is only partly true. I am _part_ of him. You see over the years he has managed to create five individual personas to fit needs that he had. I am one of the three original parts of his personality."

"That would explain a lot." Raven replied. "If his memories were removed you could still retain yours."

"Yes, and most of my power as well, but you see I am a deep part of his 'self', and though I am sometimes able to come out on my own I usually reside deep within his mind. Many of his abilities are derived from me but when he doesn't know what they are and cannot summon them I loose most of my power." The older Timothy said. "He is able to create physical bodies for his different persona but he usually chooses to keep me with him... regardless our minds and spirits are so closely linked that what ever happens to him happens to me as well. When he lost his memories I lost some of mine... part of him left, but part was also stored within me."

"It sounds to me like he controls you." Raven said, a hint of bitterness in her voice.

"Please, don't take it that way. Even the true him is a good person, and our feelings are true..." the older Timothy paused for a second. "And he doesn't _use_ me. Though I was part of him since he was born I wasn't really awakened until recently. For him and I to be apart is like separating twins who share a heart..."

"Oh... I'm sorry." Raven said. "I didn't realize..."

"That's ok." The older Timothy said moving closer. "You can't know everything about the boy you have taken in... not yet at least." He took another step closer. "Originally we came to this universe for one reason." He told her stepping onto the island. "But when we got here someone good was dying, we had to save them. When we took their soul to keep safe until we were able to restore their body the universe rejected us and we were forced out. Recently we tried to return, for a necessary reason but when we entered the universe it remembered us and tried to strip us of our power. That is what really happened that day; that is why he cannot remember anything."

The older Timothy was now on the island, the stave in his was burning with a golden, blue, red and white flame. Raven noticed that the ribbons that were attached directly below the wings were moving on their own, even though there was no wind. The older Timothy stepped to one side and looked at the ground, Raven followed his gaze and saw that the young Timothy was still there, curled into a ball and apparently asleep.

"I can't allow you to help them..." the older Timothy said. "But I can."

He raised the stave and struck it on the ground, the burning light focused into a beam and flashed outward into the statues. The statues illuminated with an intense green light, and as they did so archaic symbols began to illuminate around them. The older Timothy held out his left hand and rotated it in a circle; as he did so a small white ball appeared. He stopped rotating his hand and snapped and the ball split into eight parts: red, green, brown, silver, dark blue, very light blue, blue, and yellow. The eight balls split into halves and reformed; finally they shot to the statues.

"There," The older Timothy said. "I have done all that I can, now it is up to them what happens next." He turned to look at Raven. "I'm sorry. When you came in here you expected to find the same man who you had been speaking with the past few times. I am not really him since Timothy's and my mind are not one at the moment. When you return the next time I believe we will have returned to who you had expected."

The older Timothy began to turn away but stopped and turned his head back. "I wish for you to do me, to do _us_ a favor. Please, teach Timothy how to speak." He said. "You know that you can come hear during both sleep and during meditation, so please teach him, not just how to speak but as much as you can. I believe with your guidance he will regain what he lost much faster."

Raven opened her eyes and saw that she was still sitting in her meditative position. The sun was rising so she knew that it was morning already. She must have slept in the stance all night. After lowing herself to the floor she got up and walked closer to Timothy. Even after what she had seen, which she still didn't know how to react to, she still felt a deep adoration towards the little boy. She had once thought it was motherly, or like she was his elder sister, but now she was not so sure... Raven gently reached forward and stroked Timothy's head, pushing his hair out of his face.

---

After Timothy woke up he and Raven went to the common room. The sun was still rising and it illuminated the entire room with a deep red shine. There were only a few clouds in the sky and it looked like it was going to be a beautiful day. As Raven prepared breakfast for them Timothy gazed out the window over the ocean. Every so often he would glance up and then his head would follow something through the sky and into the ocean.

Just as Raven finished making them food, she had begun to become quite good at it actually, Timothy walked over to her and tugged on her cape. She understood almost instantly, probably because of Timothy's method of speech, or she just understood him better. They took their food up to eat on the roof.

As they stepped out onto the roof they found Terra sitting, one leg over the side, her arm around her head resting against the other. She had a small pile of stones next to her and she was tossing them off of the roof and over the water. Raven wasn't that surprised when she sat Terra sitting there, nor was she much surprised when she saw Timothy walk over and gently tap on her arm.

Terra was still wearing the suit that she had gotten from Slade but it was obvious that she had made a number of attempts to remove it. It had been torn before but it was more so now and she had scratch marks on her arms and legs. When Timothy tapped on her she jumped slightly and turned to see who it was. When she saw Timothy's innocent smiling face she smiled back weakly.

Timothy gently moved his hands over the scratches on her arm and a small blue light passed between them. As his had moved Raven and Terra saw that the scratches were gone, completely healed. Terra was stunned but Raven smiled; she knew that Timothy was being kind and trying to be helpful.

When he had passed his hand over the rest of Terra's arm he took her by the hand and pulled her over to where Raven had placed their breakfast. Raven noticed that she had somehow managed to bring more than she remembered making and she assumed that Timothy must have somehow done that.

"Ok, ok, I'm coming." Terra said laughing. "Hello, Raven."

"Good morning, Terra." Raven replied. "I see you and Timothy are getting along well."

"Yes." Terra replied. "Does he really not speak?"

"I have only heard him say one word." Raven said. "And it was very difficult for him to say it."

"What was that?"

"Love." Raven told her, blushing slightly.

Terra smiled and looked at the little boy who was busying himself with his food. Raven glanced at him as well and noticed that he was also making another plate, for Terra probably. Then, when he had finished with the first two he prepared a third. Finally he handed out the plates full of breakfast and they started eating.

After a few moments Raven paused and said, "You should know, Timothy hasn't been very social with the others."

"Yeah, I know." Terra said, still eating. "Beast Boy told me about him last night..." she trailed off and started blushing.

Timothy paused for a second and looked over at Terra, then he turned back to his food smiling; nearly grinning. Raven wondered what he had sensed but didn't do anything to find out for herself. It probably wasn't anything; it was obvious that Beast Boy loved Terra and before she left with Slade it had seemed that she had started to love him as well.

"Anyway," Terra said finally. "Beast Boy told me how you found him in a little more depth than Robin did, he also added some of the events that had happened over the past few days." Terra paused and took another bite of her food. "What I don't understand though, is why he seems to like me so much... almost as much as he likes you."

Raven remembered what had happened while she was meditating. Was the person that that older Timothy had been talking about Terra? Was that why Timothy seemed to like her so much? Then what was the other reason they had wanted to enter this universe? Could it be... could it actually be...

"I don't really know either." Raven said. "But I believe the reason you found him when you came back was because he had helped save you."

"Really?" Terra asked. "Yeah, that would make sense. It did feel like I was being led..." she paused and there was silence for a moment.

Timothy had finished eating and was sitting where Terra had been. The girls looked over and saw that he was tossing the stones that Terra had gathered off of the roof. The two got up and walked over to sit by him. It seemed that somehow Timothy was the thing that finally brought the two together in friendship, or at the very least normalcy. As they sat down they realized that he wasn't just tossing them but he was giving them such a spin that they continued going until they hit the water, and even then they skipped a few paces. The girls laughed and the three of them began having a contest to see who could skip the furthest.

After about half an hour, the sun was further up in the sky, and the three were feeling very content. Terra and Raven got up, remembering their plates, and began to walk back to clean up. As they turned their backs Timothy began to rise into the air, four stubs growing on his back. The stubs grew and flexed and two pairs of wings spread from under his cape. Timothy opened his eyes, a new light in them, his cloths draining of color, and he rushed forward. As he moved he pushed out both of his hands, which had suddenly grown gloves, and pushed into Terra's back.

As Terra fell forward, obviously surprised, two rings of light appeared beneath her. She stumbled into the middle and was held in place as she began to levitate into the air. At first Terra panicked and struggled, as anyone would have done, but slowly her body relaxed and her eyes closed. A white light with light blue overtones began to illuminate within the circles and a golden red flame began to burn around Terra. As Raven watched in astonishment the flame licked away all of Terra's scratches and any sign that she had ever tried to remove the suit.

When it was over and Terra was finally let to the ground she opened her eyes and looked over her body. She was pleased to see that she was completely healed but, at the same time, disappointed that the suit was still on. She stepped out of the circle as it faded and Timothy returned to the ground. Slowly she approached Timothy, a very pleased smile on her face and as Timothy's eyes opened Terra began to say, "Thank you," but just as she did so the fabric and the metals of the suit disintegrated. So what ended up happening was this, Terra walked towards Timothy as he opened his eyes and the first thing he saw was... needless to say he spun around, his face burning.

After she got over the shock Raven began laughing. It was honestly funny, Terra's look was more than priceless as she tried to cover herself, and figure out what happened. Quickly Raven walked over, taking off her cape, and handed it to Terra. "Here," she said. "I believe we still have some cloths you can use."


	7. Games, PIZZA!, and horror stories

Well, I have surpassed 300 hits. It would be nice to get a few more reviews though. Come on people, voice your oppinion! Be heard! Make a difference! Um, anyway, enjoy...

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After Terra changed clothes the others began to wake up. It was still very early in the morning, nine-ish or something like that, and Timothy, Raven and Terra had already been up for three hours. As the others walked into the common room the three greeted them cheerfully, well, Timothy just waved or nodded enthusiastically. 

Finally the other titans had eaten breakfast and woken up a little more; Beast Boy had gone over to Terra almost immediately after he had eaten. They sat around the table and wondered what to do with such a beautiful day. Oddly enough it was similar to the day that Timothy had arrived, and with that in mind they decided to do something active. Finally they all agreed on a game of volleyball, seeing as how that was the game they had been playing when Terra first returned to them.

They all headed up to the roof and set up the net. Choosing teams they all got into their chosen positions, even Raven decided to play, though she had told Timothy to watch, at first anyway. The ball started on Robin's side, which consisted of Robin, Starfire and Raven; the other side was obviously Beast Boy, Cyborg and Terra. Robin hit the ball into the air and the game started.

From the sidelines Timothy watched patiently as the ball was thrown, punched, smacked and an assortment of other ways of hitting. Each time the ball went from one side to the other it seemed that someone else was deciding to improvise in the rules... somehow Timothy knew that this was not the way the game had originally been meant to be played, though he suspected that the titans might be showing off for his enjoyment.

Finally after the ball hit the ground, on Beast Boy's side, they decided to play seriously, or slightly more so. As Timothy watched the others play he began to try and predict who the ball would go to next; as he did so he suddenly realized that the ball was about to fly off the roof... As the ball was hit to Beast Boy he shifted into a gorilla and pounded the ball back, at Raven of all people.

Raven side stepped avoiding the full force of the ball, but still trying to stop it. She missed and the ball flew towards the edge of the roof. The titans braced themselves for having to run down to get it but as it passed the threshold there was a thunderclap and a sizzle as the ball bounced back. Along the threshold between roof and drop a shield illuminated, the force of the ball rippling through it.

Timothy had, before the ball reached the threshold, jumped to his feet, but now he sat down hoping that no one had noticed his interference. Fortunately, it seemed, everyone was too stunned to have noticed much else. Finally Robin picked up the ball, which was slightly warm and they continued playing.

---

Ninety minutes later, and three dead balls, the game was over. Robin's side had won by a technicality, they had run out of volleyballs. The points were also in their favor but if the game had continued it could have been either side's game. They packed up and headed back inside the tower and headed for their showers. They all wanted to get cleaned up after the match they had just played.

Raven, Starfire and Terra headed to the girls shower room and Robin, Beast Boy and Cyborg headed towards theirs. Once, before one of the many times the tower had needed to be rebuilt, there had only been one bathroom in their tower, but they had long since fixed that problem. Now there were enough showers and restrooms for all of the titans plus a number of guests.

After they were all washed up they realized that the growling they kept hearing wasn't an attacking kitten, nor was it Beast Boy, at least not alone. They decided to get pizza in town. Five minutes later they were at their favorite pizza joint, or perhaps the only one in town... ordering an extra large pizza. They split it four ways, Beast Boy got his usual vegetarian; Starfire got her, um, usual unusual; Cyborg got his favorite all meat, and the others settled on supreme.

As the others ate their choice of pizza Timothy looked at the slice in front of him as though it were the first time he had ever seen pizza before, which it essentially was. He was confounded by this new object which was supposedly food. It was cut into twelve slices, six of which were currently being devoured point first. More over were the number of variables that came with it, all the little foods that could be placed on top of the pizza. He took a slice which had greens, brown and yellows on it and curiously took a bite. A wild sensation of tastes entered his mouth as the cheese melted, another burst of flavor as he crunched through a mushroom and then a green pepper. And as the other titans enjoyed their slices of pizza Timothy was flooded with more sensations than he had ever felt in this life.

---

Raven appeared on the grassy hilltop within the mountains. This place had begun to become very familiar to her. She already knew that the older Timothy would be there waiting for her when she turned around and saw him patiently watching her. She smiled to herself and walked over to him.

"Are you ok?" Raven asked looking into the older Timothy's eyes.

"Yes, I am ok, thank you for asking." He replied. "And so is Timothy in case you are wondering." He smiled and laughed lightly.

"Sorry, it's just that you two are..."

"So similar? Well, yes, I suppose we are." He said. "But then, I am him, just a different him, an older Timothy."

"You seem to be in a good mood." Raven noticed.

"I'm just finding myself to be a little humorous." He replied. "You see, when I was younger I was both blessed and plagued with a hyper sensitivity to all forms of sense. I could see, smell, hear and feel better than nearly anyone else. My sense of smell and taste were stronger as well but they were overwritten by the others." He told Raven. "The main problem was with sight, sound and touch, and particularly with touch. I was so sensitive that it kind of gave me a sixth sense. I could literally feel the energies in the air." He paused and shook his head. "Anyway, I had finally managed to get that under control and here I am, with no memory, breaking that control."

"So, Timothy had a sensory overload?" Raven asked.

"Pretty much, yes." he replied. "But... you should have _felt_ it! It was like doing every kind of drug, natural or otherwise, at the same time. Such a flood of information... it's been so long." He stopped and stared off into the distance for a while.

"There is something that I have been wondering about." Raven asked. "Timothy, the young boy, doesn't remember anything, and is not in control of most of his powers, yet he is still able to do many amazing things." she paused for a second. "And every so often a teenager, only slightly younger than myself, appears to help us..."

The older Timothy didn't say anything for a while; as he stared off into the distance he had a serious expression on his face. Finally he turned back to Raven and said, "Do you want to know the truth?"

Sudden excitement rushing through her Raven replied as calmly as she could, "Yes, I would like to know the truth."

"When I was far younger than I am now; when I was virtually powerless I still fantasized. I came up with spells, methods of creation using energy, that I then tried to use. I was never really sure if any of it worked, though when I finally began being able to physically affect the world around me I continued to use those methods that I had already created..." he paused again, hesitating as though debating whether or not to go on. "One spell which I know continues to this day is a very powerful book that I created. The book contains everything that I have ever done, ever created, and everything that I ever will do or create. It's a spell book, a history, and so much more.

"I guess you could say that I draw my powers from that, even when I technically shouldn't be able to do something, if I must I can still do it. The book is the doorway to my soul, to my very being." He placed his left hand out as though holding a book to read while he placed his right hand above his heart. With one quick movement that Raven couldn't quite see or understand he materialized a book and flipped it open to a blank page. He moved his right hand along it as though reading from what ever script may be within it.

"I don't see anything." Raven said looking at the blank pages.

"No, I wouldn't think you could. This is protected by every protection I know, it is shielded by every shield I know, and in every way possible hidden. One can only read from it what is needed to be read, but they will read it in what ever language they need it to be in." he closed the book and held it balanced in his right hand. "You won't be able to read it because you can't know all you wish to about me. The simple reason is because if you know that the young Timothy will find out, and I cannot allow myself to just suddenly remember everything."

"Why, why can't you allow the young Timothy to remember." Raven asked, almost pleading.

"Because... because as soon as I completely become myself again... because if my memories return to me all in one short time something unfortunate will happen. The effect may create a tear in the very fabric of space, time, matter, energy and will. Those five cannot become unbalanced or the universe will collapse."

"Are you really that powerful?" Raven asked. "Are you _evil_? I can't believe that something like that would happen. I-"

"Raven, I told you before that as I entered this universe nearly _all_ of my powers were stripped from me. If I remember who I am in the waking world those energies will return to me _all at once_. This I cannot control, it will just happen. And, yes, I really am that powerful... you should read the chronicles of destruction, or the destruction chronicles, or what ever they call it in this universe."

Raven stared helplessly at the older Timothy, unable to move because of shock and disbelief. She simply couldn't believe what she was hearing. She had never thought that anyone could sound so... so... arrogant. Well, except for her father. At least he wasn't enjoying the fact that he supposedly could destroy the universe...

The older Timothy sighed and looked into Raven's eyes. "I am sorry. I really don't mean to sound this way but this is the only way I can make you understand. I don't really _like_ sitting back and watching myself with no memory, but that is the only way I can exist safely right now." he looked back at the book and then at Raven again. "I want you to hold onto this for now. May it serve you well until I need it again. Hold on to it always and it will always protect you."

He started walking towards Raven the book forward and placed it in her hand just as he leaned forward and kissed her on the forehead. Raven looked down and realized that she was back in the material world, sitting in a meditative stance, the others looking at her. The book was nowhere to be seen but she felt different, somehow. If it was more power it didn't exactly feel that way, nor did she feel protected, or wiser... but still she couldn't quite shake the feeling that something was different.

---

The next day when Terra woke up and got out of bed she suddenly felt as though she were being watched. As she undressed to take a morning shower the feeling went away but after her shower it was back, strong as ever. Slowly the thought that Slade may be trying to get her again crept into her mind, but he was supposed to be dead. As she entered the common room for breakfast the feeling weakened and she saw Beast Boy, uh, waiting for her.

"G'morning Beast Boy." Terra said.

"'morning Terra," Beast Boy replied. "I got you breakfast."

Terra walked over to the table and saw a smorgasbord of food. As she looked at the foods laid out on the table she suddenly realized that they were all foods from the various places she usually visited. She felt both touched and a little freaked out at the same time.

"Beast Boy... when... how... why?" Terra stuttered.

"It took me forever but I finally managed to find all of the places that you use to go to before you came here. Once I had the list I ordered what you usually got and brought it to the tower." He told her. "Do you like it?"

"I... I don't know what to say."

"You could say yes..." Beast Boy started.

"... 'cause you are going to ask me out on a date." Terra finished, remembering the night that she and Beast Boy ran off, Terra trying to escape from what she had done, Beast Boy just having a good time. Of course that was until Slade found them and told Beast Boy what Terra had done.

"Um, yeah." Beast Boy answered, blushing.

"Sure, Beast Boy, I would love to." Terra said, smiling and hugging Beast Boy.

Beast Boy grinned and put his arms around Terra just as Timothy and Terra walked into the room. The two broke off and blushed as they turned to greet the other two. Timothy had a pleased look on his face but he was hiding it well enough that only Raven really noticed and Terra briefly noticed.

"I see we have a new couple in the tower." Raven said, also trying to hide her smile.

"Uh... yeah." Terra said and Beast Boy just grinned.

Raven walked over to the kitchen and began to prepare food for herself and for Timothy. Timothy walked over to the table and noticed all of the food that was already laid out. He gazed at each delicacy as though they were pieces of art or books. Terra noticed him watching the food and she glanced at Beast Boy, who nodded.

"Go ahead Timothy, it isn't like I could finish all of this myself." Terra said to the little boy.

Timothy looked over to Raven and she smiled and nodded. In a blink Timothy was sampling the various delicacies, taking in each as though he was an expert food sampler and each was a new and delicious food. Terra noted how Timothy took so little of each that it was almost as though he hadn't taken any at all. Finally, once Timothy reached the end he selected the ones he liked the most, each one balancing out with another, until he had a complete meal.

The others had watched as though this were the most fascinating, or strange, event they had ever seen, but when Timothy had finished they shook themselves out of the daze. Raven finished making herself breakfast and tea and Beast Boy and Terra sat down to finish what Timothy hadn't taken.

"So, Beast Boy, where do you want to go?" Terra asked.

"I was going to ask you the same thing." Beast Boy said.

"Hey, I heard they rebuilt the carnival." Terra said, "We could finish there and then decide where to go."

"That's a great idea." Beast Boy said.

Robin walked into the room, blinking and rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He walked down to the kitchen, where Raven had just finished, and pulled out a few things. As he got to work Starfire floated lazily into the room, which was odd to watch, and joined Robin in making breakfast. A few minutes later Cyborg entered and made himself breakfast. Once the entire group was together and done eating they sat back and discussed what they were going to do today.

"I need to do a little research, Slade is still on the loose and I don't think he has gotten any 'better' since our last encounter." Robin said.

"That's a good idea, maybe I should do a..." Cyborg started but was interrupted by Terra.

"So Slade _is_ still alive!" Terra yelled. "Oh, sorry Cyborg, it's just that I thought..." she trailed off.

"What?" Robin asked, almost eager.

"Well, earlier it felt as though I was being watched. I thought it might be Slade, but he's dead."

"Well, that's not entirely true." Robin said.

"Slade was revived..." Raven told Terra. "By my father."

"Your father?" Terra asked.

Slowly the titans began to explain more of what had happened before Terra had been revived. As they told her their stories she listened eagerly and excitedly. When they finally got to the end it was almost like an action adventure horror story.

"Oh," Terra said when they were done. "So that's how it happened."

---

Later that day Raven was reading in her room and Timothy was watching out the window, looking at the city. He seemed to be watching something, something far away. Every so often Raven would glance over at him, trying to figure out what he was doing; this time though she noticed that he had gone into a meditative stance, _her_ meditative stance. She stood up and walked over to him. After a few seconds she looked out the window towards where he had been looking and suddenly understood...


	8. A time for death and a time for life

Ah, now that I am about three chapters ahead again I feel that I can update. Sorry it took me so long. I was traveling for Thanksgiving and didn't have much time to write. Anywhoo, this was the last chapter that was in the preview, I think you will be... um, shocked. Enjoy.

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They, Beast Boy and Terra, had been at the carnival for a few hours. There were other people there now, but they were still having a good time. They had ridden all of the rides again, except for the Ferris wheel and they hadn't gone into the house of mirrors. For some reason, probably because of the bad memories, they had decided not to go into them until night... 

It was dusk already and many of the people were leaving. The carnival was already nearly empty and they decided to ride the Ferris wheel. There was no line now and they got on almost immediately. Sitting together and holding hands they rode to the top, their heads getting closer every second. Finally, at the top their lips touched, sparks flew, and they had their first kiss...

"Bravo, apprentice." Came a nasty voice from behind them. "I see you finally got your _pet_."

"Slade!" the two titans said together turning around.

Somehow Slade had, once again, managed to get into the wheel with them. He was sitting just across from them on the other seat. If the titans could have seen behind his mask they would have seen a wicked grin, instead they could feel it in the air as it was chilled around them.

"I am not your apprentice any more!" Terra said. "That ended the day you tried to get me to kill him!"

"Ah, but you see, once I have an apprentice I never really give them up..." Slade replied calmly, except for the bitterness in his voice.

"What about Robin?" Beast Boy asked.

"I didn't. _He_ may not know it, or accept it, but he _is_ still my apprentice." Slade said standing up. "Now, Terra, lets go."

"No. I won't go with you." Terra said standing up and clenching her fists.

"I'm not asking." Slade said. "Remember, I still control you."

"No you don't!" Beast Boy yelled changing into a panther and attacking Slade.

Slade jumped back and kicked Beast Boy in the side sending him through the door of the carriage. As Beast Boy fell he changed into a hawk and flew back up towards Slade and Terra. As he flew he could see Slade reaching for Terra, Slade moved as though he were trying to control her.

"What?" Slade asked. "No, something's wrong."

"Finding it difficult?" Terra taunted. "Trying to _force_ your will on me again? Well, guess what, YOU CAN'T CONTROL ME!" Terra yelled. "So, thank you for all that you taught me but I won't be joining you again." And with that she summoned a lump of earth and jumped onto it. Beast Boy landed on it as well and morphed back into his human form.

"NO! This isn't over!" Slade yelled. "I still have a..."

Suddenly Terra stopped grasping her head in both hands. The rock beneath them buckled and suddenly fell. Terra curled into a ball as though she were in incredible pain, which she was. Slade had found a way, some of the suit had integrated into her brain and neural system.

Terra couldn't hold on much longer, soon she would loose the fight. Desperate Beast Boy morphed into a bird again and flew as fast as he could towards Slade, but as he flew he knew it was already useless. A rock flew into him and hovered between him and Slade. As he hovered he glanced back at Terra who was looking up at him, a look of pure horror and hatred on her face. She was still trying to fight but she was loosing, completely.

The rock in front of Beast Boy dissolved and Slade walked out on the rubble towards the flapping Beast Boy. "It appears that my time dead, and my revival have given me some lasting new abilities." He walked up to Beast Boy, who found himself hypnotized into place. As soon as he was directly ahead of Beast Boy, Slade grabbed him out of the air and held him his grip.

There was a scream of agony, which came from Terra's paralyzed body. She knew what Slade intended to do, finish off Beast Boy while she watched to finally throw her over the edge... she couldn't watch, but she couldn't turn away. It was the perfect torture.

Beast Boy couldn't breathe, he couldn't move and he was somehow unable to morph. Slade had control over him as well somehow. Then, suddenly he was released. Beast Boy's crumpled body fell, but as it fell it was met by lumps of earth, and not softly either. Slade had changed his mind, he was going to make Terra kill Beast Boy.

"NO!" Terra screamed. "Please stop!"

"No, Terra. I won't, I will never release my control over you."

"Fine! Fine... I submit. You win, just let Beast Boy go."

"You submit?" Slade asked looking down at Terra's feeble stance. "You submit? No, you _still_ have fire in your eyes. You are still defiant of me."

Terra panicked, but then, because of her fear, her pain, hatred, and everything else, she completely withdrew. Her eyes glazed over and rolled up and her body went limp. Slade dropped to the ground as the rubble fell and walked over to Terra's limp body. She was still standing, but only because of his control over her.

"It shouldn't have been this easy." Slade said to himself. "It's as if her soul just left..."

"That's because it did." A voice said from behind Slade. "Her soul left her body, again. And again it was your fault."

Slade whipped around and found a man wearing white robes standing ten feet away from him. The man was holding Beast Boy, who had changed back into his human form. The robes were made up of three parts, a cape with a hood, similar to Raven's, a cloak, and a tightly fitting outfit that looked similar to Robin's (without the cape and mask).

"Who are you?" Slade asked, his eye narrowing.

"I am your worst nightmare." The man replied. "I will not allow you to harm these children for your evil purpose. Not even these new powers you seem to have acquired are yours. You prey off of those around you, taking the power they have and making it yours. You care nothing of those around you but only for yourself and your purpose." The man paused and gently placed Beast Boy on the ground. "I personally may not be aloud to stop you but I can prevent you from harming those who can."

Standing straight again the man extended his hand over Beast Boy's resting body, and specifically over his head. With a slight clench Beast Boy's body illuminated with a light blue-green glow. Slowly Beast Boy rose to a standing position and opened his eyes. Then the man released him and Beast Boy looked around confused.

"What happened?"

"You are safe now, child." The man said. "But stay back, no matter what happens."

"Who are you?" Beast Boy asked.

"I cannot answer that question." The man said. "Not now, at least, but soon all the titans will know."

In a flash of light the man moved towards Slade. He was just a blur but somehow Slade seemed prepared. Slade blocked the man's initial attack, and three of his secondary attacks. They jumped back from another and seemed ready to get at it again but the man shifted his weight and swung his right arm in front of his body. At the center point, directly ahead of his face, a light appeared as he continued his swing, and the light grew into a thin, long sward. As the sward reached the hilt two pairs of wings appeared, one angelic, the other demonic.

The man grabbed the sward from the air and jumped at Slade, bearing the sward, ready to slice trough Slade's mortal body. Suddenly, just as the man got close enough Slade jumped back and Terra moved into the blade. There was a sickening sound as the blade cut straight through her and Beast Boy yelled in anguish. The blade had gone through and blood dripped from the edge, yet the man didn't seemed phased at all.

"So, this is how you save those who you help?" Slade mocked.

"No, this was just an empty shell. Terra's soul left long before the blade hit her, your doing I might add." The man said and placed his left hand on Terra's back. Beast Boy nearly ran forward but he felt as though he couldn't move again, not the way Slade had stopped him, but similar. Fear, misery, terror, anguish...

"Slade, this ends now." The man said. "Till we meet again." The man inhaled and then uttered a single word. 'Absolution'.

The sward lit up, as did the air all around them. The light grew and congealed around and within the sward. An insignia appeared within a circle around the tip of the sward but was quickly consumed by a sphere of light. The man pulled the sward and the sphere shot towards Slade. There was a loud crack as though hundreds of lightening strikes were happening all around them and Slade disappeared within the sphere.

As the sphere disappeared up into the air the man slashed his sward through the air, sweeping the blood off of it. Then he sheathed the sward into a sheath that had, till now, been hidden.

"You... you killed her." Beast Boy found his voice as he ran to Terra's dead body.

"No," the man replied. "As I said before she was already dead before. She had never _really_ been with you, but instead her soul was attached to this shell of a body."

"What does that mean?" Beast Boy yelled.

"It means that she wasn't really Terra," Raven said from the air. She had finally reached the spot where the fighting had taken place. "It was something else."

"Raven, at last." The man said. "My time is short, if I am to do this I need to do it quickly."

"What do you need me to do?" Raven asked.

"You'll know." The man said.

He placed his hands, arm level, over Terra's lifeless body and the insignia reappeared on the ground. Suddenly Raven felt a warm, burning excitement just below where her ribcages met. She placed her left hand there and felt something fill it. When she removed her hand she found the book laying in it. Curiously she opened the book and looked at its appealingly blank pages.

"Terra, daughter of earth," the insignia had grown so that it completely surrounded Terra's body. "Rise from your resting place and return to your mortal body. I bring life back from the death."

Suddenly the pages in the book began to move themselves rapidly, as though they were being blown by a brisk wind. They landed on a page that had text and images within it. Raven couldn't read most of it but she did recognize the word 'Terra'. Then two cards appeared from the back and flew over to the man. He caught them and held one out. The card was labeled 'The Death', then as he released the card it flew flat and hovered over Terra's body. It began to lower and as it did so her body began to be consumed by the ground. Finally when she was completely gone beneath the ground he held out the second card and the two titans could see that it was labeled 'The Life'.

"I need one more card." The man said.

The card appeared and flew to him. As he placed it next to 'The Life' Beast Boy and Raven could see that it was called 'The Earth'. Suddenly the ground around them became liquid-like and began to move rapidly. The spot where Terra had been rose up and the two titans were shocked to see it form a flower. As the flower bloomed they saw Terra's body, clothed in a light brown robe, laying in the center. She suddenly inhaled and began to move. After a second she opened her eyes and looked at the man.

"Kind of a flashy way of bringing me back, don't you think?" she asked.

"Well, it is what the universe wanted." The man replied. "And now that I have repaid my debt I can begin to regain what _I_ lost. But I fear there will be much more for me to do. This was only the beginning, and I will still be needed yet. But for now my time is short, and is nearly up. It is not _my_ time yet, and I must release my hold and allow the universe to return to its own ways." That said two pairs of wings lifted up from beneath his cape, one angelic and one demonic. They encircled him and when they released once again he was laying on the ground, as Timothy.

---

Somewhere off in the distance Slade had already begun to plot how to get his revenge. As he had been hit by the massive attack he had glimpsed Timothy's 'true nature' and it filled him with a greed and lust for power that surpassed even what he had had before.

Slade had already found one of the crystalline objects that three other villains had used, he knew what their capabilities were. Shortly after he understood what it was he decided to assault the titans once again but discovered that Terra was alive again as well. Seeking to once again control his second titan apprentice he attacked her instead, and at first it seemed to be working.

Of course then that little boy had to show up... it was he who held all the true power. The crystals were just extensions, or outlets... with them he would be able to use and eventually gain the power that the child had but with only one crystal in his possession even he was no match for the boy. For now he would plot his next move, and that would most certainly be to gather more of the crystals.

---

As they made their way back to the tower, Terra flying on a lump of earth with Beast Boy and Raven flying of her own accord and carrying the sleeping Timothy, they talked about what had happened.

"So, let me get this straight," Beast Boy said, only for the seventh time, "That body, the one I had been talking to for a few days, wasn't actually you?"

"That's right." Terra said.

"But then..."

"It was a shell, a dead lump of flesh and bone that Timothy reanimated." She told him, again. "The Terra that you had been talking to was the remains of my mind within the body."

"But..."

Terra sighed. "Look, I wasn't supposed to tell you this but shortly after I was covered in molten rock, but shortly before I died, a man in glowing white robes and angelic wings came to me. He said that he could save my life but I would have to leave with him for a year or so. I chose to go and he took me to another universe, I can't recall the name right now. There I rested until another Terra from another universe was saved from Slade's grasp. My resting soul was placed in her body and there I continued to rest until I awoke, just before she had to return to her own universe. I stayed in that universe, awake and curious, until just an hour ago when the emperor of the world came and told me that it was time for me to return to my home. A few seconds later I found myself here, being born from a flower sculpture, the same man helping me out of the ground..."

"Oh... but..." Beast Boy tried again.

"Yes?" Terra asked, looking over at Beast Boy and sweeping her hair out of her face as she did so.

"Nothing... never mind." Beast Boy said, blush running across his face. "I am just glad to finally have you back."

"And I am glad to be back." Terra said, leaning into Beast Boy.

They kissed and Raven looked away. "I would say get a room, but since we are a mile off the ground I'll let it pass."

The couple turned to look at her, blushing, and they all laughed. Timothy stirred and his eyes opened. He looked around, looked at the Titans, and then looked down... Suddenly he grasped Raven tightly, apparently frightened from the height. Raven cradled him in her arms and told him it would be alright.

"No way, am I actually seeing this?" Terra asked. "Raven, being motherly?"

"Yeah," Beast Boy said. "She has been ever since we found Timothy."

"Really?" Terra asked and laughed. "Never thought I'd see the day."

---

Back at the tower the others were, somewhat, worried. They had known that Terra and Beast Boy were going to be gone but the sudden disappearance of Raven and Timothy didn't bode well. Robin opened his communicator and called Raven, "Raven, where are you?"

"I'm heading back to the tower with Terra, Beast Boy and Timothy. There was a little trouble but we were able to handle it." Raven replied.

"Oh, ok." Robin said, visibly relieved. "What happened?"

"Oh, not much, Slade attacked Terra and Beast Boy trying to take control of his old apprentice again, which he managed. Then he fought with someone and Terra was killed... but don't worry, she was revived again."

"What?" Robin said shocked.

"We'll explain it when we get there." Raven said. "Raven out."

"Well, that was strange." Cyborg said.

"Yes, Raven does not seem herself at the moment." Starfire agreed.

Robin looked at his still open communicator. He hadn't been able to get a visual, just audio, so he hadn't been able to actually see anything. He didn't know what was going on, just that she hadn't sounded like herself... at all. Something was up, and he didn't like being out of the loop.


	9. Reading, Speaking, and Toasting

This is Master-Aricitic reminding you that stealing is bad. If you get caught bad things happen. If you don't get caught you (should) feel bad... So lets all be good people and not steel...

Anyway, sorry it's been so long, I'd been in sorta a mental funk, meaning I couldn't write. Not that I'm out of it now just I've decided to post the three chapters I was holding off on. I'll start up on the story again as soon as my inspiration and desire to write starts up again.  
Thank you for your patiance.

* * *

That night, after they fully explained what had happened, of course leaving out the part that the man was in fact Timothy, and they had all gone to bed she fell asleep and found herself once again in the small world within the mountains. This time, though, something seemed different. She noticed that she was holding the book she had somehow extracted from herself earlier that day. Ever since they had arrived at the tower she had been trying to read it, but all of the pages were blank, and in the back there was a place for a deck of cards but the cards were missing. 

Slightly frustrated she sat down; wondering if she would have any better luck here she reopened the book and flipped ahead a few pages. She knew that the older Timothy would find her, he always did, and then she could ask him about it. For now, though, she resigned herself to, once again, trying to read the blank pages.

Running her fingers across the impossibly smooth page she tried to visualize what text the illusive book may contain. As she did so her mind began to create text that she knew from books she had already read and as the words were formed in her head they began to appear on the pages. Surprised she read and reread the text she had come up with, it was from the book of Azarath. Suddenly an idea began to form in her mind and she turned a page. She began to focus on another book she had read, but this time nothing happened.

_Maybe I need to be relaxed._ Raven thought to herself and allowed her mind to relax again. Once again she thought of the text within the other book and slowly the words formed both in her mind and on the page in front of her. Excitement flowing through her now she turned the page again and tried it again. Again and again it worked until at last Raven began to decipher how she may be able to read text from the book itself.

Reacting to a quick thought she turned back to the previous pages and noted that they were once again blank. Now she was ready to try and unlock some of the illusive secrets of the book. She relaxed her mind, trying not to focus on anything in particular, and looked back at the blank pages of the book. She tried to see into its blank pages and read whatever they contained and this time as she did so the text began to form without her.

As she watched words began to form on the page. Much of the text was not text at all but fragments of the letters and symbols that would appear, and as they moved and came together she began to see what letters they formed. Some of it she honestly couldn't read, but others...

"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos... Raven, the prophecy child of Azarath and the dark lord Trigon, what do you seek to learn from these pages..."

She stopped reading. Had the book actually just asked her a question? Well, if so she could find out easily enough. She began 'reading' again...

"The knowledge you seek, knowledge of yourself and your history..."

And as she continued reading her history was played out in the text. Everything from birth to now. Some things were left out but nearly all of it was there in exquisite detail. As she finished reading and turned what she assumed to be the final page she noticed two diagrams on the next two pages. The one on the left was of her but she was wearing her dark blue clothing and her hood was up showing four glowing eyes. The one on the right, however, was of her in white clothes and her hood was down. The diagram was so similar to the one she had seen in dragon's book that she nearly thought it was the same. But it _was_ different, she could see symbols around it that somehow she understood. Somehow she began to realize that the darkness within herself was nearly gone, her father's influence was nearly gone. That meant that the first diagram was her previously and the second was her now...

"That's right..." said an old voice from behind her. "I am truly impressed, child, that you were able to begin to understand the book so quickly."

Raven jumped up and turned around. Standing, now in front of her, was a very old man, about half her height. He was wearing a hooded cape which was worn and grey, but the hood was down showing his nearly bald head. What little hair he had left was in a long braid trailing beneath the cape. His arms were coming from beneath the cape and his hands clutched an old walking stick which looked as though it had been well used for more years than Raven cared to guess. The man's hands were gloved but that didn't prevent her from seeing how old and frail they appeared, though she could see that in his face as its wrinkles sagged under their own weight. His eyes were sunken so much that it appeared as though they were closed. His entire body sagged under its own weight and he was nearly doubled over onto his walking stick.

"Who am I, you ask." The old man said. "You should be able to guess that child, but perhaps it will be easier if I tell you that the man you see before you is who... no... _what_ I really am." He paused to see her reaction. "Yes child, it is true. I am far older than you can possibly imagine. I have witnessed more years than I care to remember... but still I live on for there is still work for me to do."

"So... you _are_ Timothy." Raven asked, her voice weak. "And the age I normally see you in is..."

"It is the age I choose to live in. it is the equivalent age of my soul." The old man said. "I may be old but I am still young. As a timeless one it doesn't matter I suppose."

"Timeless?" Raven asked.

"Oh, I thought you had already been told." The old man said. "As a timeless soul I exist outside of normal time and can exist in any time that I wish. I have no real age now because time does not apply to me..."

"But..."

"This is just an appearance, child." The old man said. "Allow me to see the book." He said holding out one frail hand.

Raven hesitated but handed it to him in the end. The old man opened it to its center and, holding it with his left hand, he placed his right in the center of one of its pages. At first Raven thought he was going to fall but as he continued to stand thus she relaxed.

"Rheptharis," the old man said and the book illuminated, light pouring out of text which had not been there previous.

Suddenly the light engulfed the old man's body and he began to change. It happened rapidly and nearly all at once, like a badly rendered computer image morph. His body straightened and his skin rejuvenated; all of his hair returned, growing like thread being quickly pulled. Finally the older, and yet younger, Timothy stood in front of Raven.

"See. I really have no true age." He said. "I hope showing you my physical age won't affect you negatively."

"I... I'm just shocked." Raven said. "I had no idea..."

He smiled and stepped closer, closing the book as he moved. In one quick movement he reached her saying, "You weren't meant to, child. You weren't ready..." and kissed her on the forehead.

Raven woke up and realized that he had placed the book back within her. She felt the place, where her two sets of ribs met and formed one cage, where she had first extracted the book from. It seemed strange, but since it was just below the heart she could understand why it may be stored there.

---

Elsewhere in the tower and a few hours earlier Robin had just fallen asleep. As he entered his dream he found himself in a circus tent, where he and his family had once lived and worked. He turned to look into the center ring and saw a flash of his parents. The memory of their death flooded all too quickly back into his mind.

"I am sorry Robin." A voice said behind him. "I couldn't save them then, and I doubt I could revive them now."

Robin turned around and found someone he nearly recognized sitting in the stands. It was the teen that he had seen nearly three times now. The memory of those events came back to him as quickly as the memory of his parents deaths, and with the same unpleasantness.

"Who are you?" Robin asked.

"Who I am, really, I cannot tell yet." The teen said. "But you know me as Timothy."

"_You're_ Timothy?" Robin asked, shock striking his voice.

"I know, shocking isn't it?" Timothy said. "But it is true. The little boy whom you and the others found holds so many secrets. Even this isn't my true form, or at least the form in which I choose to live. But Robin, though I know a great deal which you wish to know time is short and I cannot reveal all the mysteries to you. Some you must discover yourself."

"I don't understand..." Robin started.

"You aren't meant to." Timothy said getting up. He began walking closer and as he did so his appearance began to change. Taking on a liquid quality it shifted and adjusted until he was an older man. He continued to walk to Robin and stopped a little more than four feet away. "But you will begin to understand more soon enough. You won't always be out of the loop..."

Timothy walked directly up to Robin and reached out his hand. "And now I must go," he said. "Till next we meet... Oh, and don't try to talk to the younger me as you do as your asleep. He knows very little at the moment."

The older Timothy took Robin's hand and shook it. On the third shake he vanished and Robin suddenly found himself in a normal dream...

---

After Raven woke up she left her room and headed towards the common room. She wasn't sure why but she had a feeling that she needed to deal with something there. As she entered the room she glanced over at the rising sun and the beauty it was creating around it. Slowly, quietly, again she didn't know why, she moved to the living room part of the common and to her surprise found Terra asleep on the couch with Beast Boy, in the shape of a kitten, curled up against her. She also found Timothy watching the two of them, a very curious expression on his face.

Now Raven knew what she had been drawn here to do. She walked quietly over to Timothy and gently put her hand on his shoulder. He looked up at her, his wide eyes happy and joyful. Slowly he stood up and followed Raven out of the room and up to the roof. It was cool, but getting warmer, and every so often a brisk breeze would blow past, blowing their capes around as it passed.

"Timothy," Raven asked, sitting in mid air. "You have tried before but are you still really unable to talk?"

Timothy nodded, opening and closing his mouth a few times. It was apparent that he wanted to but simply didn't know how to. That was strange itself because he had been around people talking for more than a week now, he should have picked up at least some of it by now... unless the reason he was unable to speak was because of a learning block, such as the inability to create vocal sounds...

"Try saying something." Raven said, testing her theory. Timothy stared at her as if asking what to say. "Try saying my name."

Timothy opened his mouth and began to form the word but no sound came. So, she was right, Timothy was unable to create sound. Now she just had to find out why. They began working on things that might make his voice come to him and as the sun slowly rose they slowly made progress. Then, at about seven in the mourning, Raven had been getting up even earlier lately, something new happened.

Taking a break Timothy looked out over the ocean towards the sunrise. He rubbed his throat and watched something moving off in the distance. After a minute or two he stood up and walked towards the edge of the roof pulling his cape closely over him and putting his hood up. A second later he ran as quickly towards Raven as he could and jumped into her just as a wide beam of light flew at her.

Startled Raven looked around to see where the beam had come from but she couldn't see anything. Suddenly she felt herself be knocked over again as Timothy pushed her out of the way of another beam. She looked down at the little boy, silently thanking him for helping her dodge the beams. He was looking sternly over the rooftop at something that Raven couldn't see.

Suddenly Timothy ran full speed back at the edge of the roof and jumped off at whatever it was that was attacking Raven. He disappeared over the edge of the roof and a second later Raven heard a splash in the ocean below. She ran to the edge to see if he had fallen into the water but as she did she heard, "Watch out!"

"Timothy?" Raven called.

"I'm over here." Timothy called. "Look up a foot or two."

She did and noticed that Timothy was hanging onto something invisible in the air. After about a second her eyes adjusted and she realized that it was a trick of the light, someone was floating in the air using a machine to bend light around them.

"Dr. Light, come back to fight me again?"

"Well, now that my cover is blown..." he said and Timothy waved through the air for a second. "I'll shed a little light on the situation." He appeared and Raven stared in disbelief at the new suit that he had on. It was like his old one but bigger, bulkier, and more ridiculous. "Allow me to illuminate the situation for you. With this machine I have found a way to break through your darkness and bathe you in light. Finally I will win and your darkness will haunt me no more."

"Do we really have to go through this again?" Raven asked, her eyes narrowing. "Timothy, come back here."

"Uh, but if I let go I'll fall." He yelled back.

"I've got you..." Raven said jumping off of the roof and floating over to him.

"No you don't!" Dr. Light said and aimed his weapon at Raven. Out of his hands came a light brighter than any she had seen before. She quickly put up her shadow shield but, similar to the battle fought with that group of villains shortly after Timothy arrived, the light cut directly through her shadow shield. It hit her full on and she felt a burning-electrical shock. The beam shot her back to the roof where she hit the wall, hard...

"He must have a crystal." Raven said.

As the beam continued to hit her she felt something build up within herself. She moved her hands to the place where the book had materialized twice before and felt it appear a third time. She opened it and found herself looking at the page of her wearing white again. At first she hadn't realized the full extend or meaning of this picture but remembering what Dr. Light had just said, 'bathed in light', she suddenly understood. She closed the book and placed it back below her heart; then she looked back towards where Timothy was dangling helplessly.

"You know, normally this would have worked on me, Dr. Light, but you waited to long." Raven said. "You see, I've already been 'bathed in light.'" That said, and not really knowing how she did it, she somehow unlocked two things within herself. The first was her true power, the power that she had gained herself, a power similar to her father's but superior in many ways, and, of course, of light rather than darkness. The second thing she didn't really understand but it was like a state of serenity, emotions were not meaningless, just not required at the moment. Her powers soured beyond anything they had ever gone and a white light fought the beam back as her cape and cloths turned pure white, as they sometimes did.

"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" she cast her usual spell, but as she did so another one came to mind. "By the power of Azarath, and the power of Aritaris, I invoke the true form of Absolution!"

Suddenly everything went dark as though all light was being drained from around them. The beam disappeared completely and Dr. Light looked around confused, and helpless... Then, with out any warning, except for the darkness, a ball of pure white light appeared between Raven's hands. The ball grew larger until she could no longer hold it within her hands and she released it.

"You know, you really should have found one of those crystals that the other villains seemed to find." Timothy said, looking up at the look of pure dread on Dr. Lights face. "It would have given you enough power to counter that... Too late now I suppose." and he let go of Dr. Light's leg.

The ball hit Dr. Light and he was forced backward. He disappeared very quickly because of the speed and sheer force of the ball. Parts of his new machine fell to the ground, broken and slightly melted. Raven looked at the fading ball, a look of shock on her face. "I hope I didn't kill him." She mumbled to herself, then remembered Timothy and looked around.

"I don't think you killed him." Timothy said from her side. "Your power may have spiked but I doubt you actually put enough into that to seriously harm him... besides, it's called 'Absolution', how much damage could a spell called 'forgiveness for someone's sins' do?"

"You can talk," Raven said, fully realizing it now.

"Yeah, I guess so." Timothy said. "Thank you, I guess you helped me find my voice."

"Yeah, uh, I think I liked you better when you were quiet..." Raven said, her look dead serious.

"Really?" Timothy whimpered.

"No!" Raven said and grabbed him in a hug. "Thank you."

"For what?" Timothy asked, his head resting on her shoulder.

"For helping me all of those times."

"Oh, right..." Timothy said. "Thank you... for taking me in when I had nowhere else to go."

There was a tapping on the glass next to them and they turned to look into the window. Terra and Beast Boy were looking up at them, grins on their faces. Raven and Timothy looked at each other and suddenly dropped the hug, backing away and blushing. Behind Terra and Beast Boy were Cyborg, Robin and Starfire. They were all grinning or smiling at the embarrassed two floating just outside the common room window.

"Hey, I think you have grown." Raven said looking at Timothy again.

"Really?" Timothy asked looking over himself. He was now somewhere around the age of fourteen. "Yeah, I guess I have. That's one heck of a growth spurt we caused."


	10. To Read a Book

I just thought that I should warn all of you, coming up within a few chapters is something really bad... Something really sad... and something that could end it all... Just thought you should all know.

* * *

Raven and Timothy joined the others in the common room for breakfast. Everyone was wide awake, perhaps it was because of the fight that had just happened, or perhaps it was because of something else. Anyway, everyone seemed cheerful this morning, and that was a good thing since they had been having a hard time with criminals lately. Of course, no one seemed to attribute this to Timothy's appearance, or if they did they didn't say anything about it. Perhaps that was because they had always had difficulty with criminals, and the new onslaught didn't seem all that abnormal to them. 

Timothy looked at his glass of orange juice and smiled to himself. He raised the glass into the air and said, "A toast, to the immeasurable amount of good luck we have had recently, may it last forever."

"I'll toast to that." Robin said, raising his glass as well.

"Same here," Terra agreed raising hers.

Beast Boy followed suit, followed by Cyborg and Raven. Starfire lifted her glass but asked, "Are we going to eat heated bread?"

They all laughed and Robin explained the concept of toasting. Starfire understood quickly enough, good customs are shared across the universe, just usually called different things... and they clinked their glasses together.

After breakfast Raven headed back up to her room. Timothy seemed to be enjoying himself and they were all delighted that he had finally become able to talk. Raven had left the others asking Timothy questions and Timothy eagerly answering them. She had smiled, something she had, until recently, rarely done; she knew she would get her turn, she could wait.

Besides, Raven wanted to begin reading the mysterious book again. She had read nearly every book that had come into her possession, with very few exceptions, and had quickly become fascinated with their stories, or what ever information they contained. Raven didn't really understand how but she knew that the book contained a story, she knew that she wanted to read that story, whatever it took.

She sat on her bed and placed her hand beneath her heart. Withdrawing her hand quickly extracted the book once again and she held it out in her left hand. Opening it with her right hand she turned to the first page. The pages were as blank and intimidating as ever, but Raven already knew how to get past their stubbornness. She relaxed her body and mind, sitting in her usual meditative stance. Slowly she extended her mind, stretching it outward into the book, allowing the words to form without being summoned. Slowly she lost track of her surroundings and everything around her became dark.

Suddenly she found herself somewhere else completely. She was standing in a building that appeared to have been destroyed by a devastating explosion. The sky was nearly pitch-black because of cloud cover, and beyond the crumbling walls of the building she could see falling snow. Near her, in one of the rooms, she saw a group of teenagers. Most of them looked as though they would be between the ages of fifteen to seventeen but the oldest one seemed to be eighteen, or at least that's what she assumed.

"We can't stay here," one boy said. "You know I'm right-" there was a momentary silence as the other's name was spoken, "we are running out of food and water."

"Damn it, I know... but where can we go?" the older boy said. "It isn't like the weather is friendly to us and because of the disaster's effect anything could be out there. If we start moving anything could attack us, spirits, animals, other humans..."

"It isn't like it is safe here either..." the younger boy said.

"Yes... I know, but... I need to collect my thoughts." The older boy paused for a moment.

The others around the collapsed room watched as the two boys argued and then as the older boy stood in silence thinking. It was as if they respected the two for some reason... perhaps protection of some kind. From where she was Raven could see three more boys, and four girls.

"I've wanted to leave the school for a while..." the older boy said at last. "But I've been afraid that someone would finally come and find us. I guess I was being stupid, hoping that my mother wasn't among the missing ones."

"No, you weren't being stupid." The youngest girl said.

"Thank you-" again silence as the name was said, "But by hoping that she would be able to come through this... I've endangered all of you. No, no longer. We should leave this place. There is nothing left here for us now, and perhaps there are others like us hiding elsewhere. If there are we should find them, and find any supplies we can."

Suddenly a boy ran into the room yelling, "They're coming, they've found us!"

"What?" the oldest boy gasped. "How, the protection..."

"Face it, -, you did all you could do, but these monsters age getting stronger."

"All right, get everyone you can together, I'll take care of the monsters... if I can."

"But, -, you can't take them all on yourself." The youngest girl said again, Raven guessed her age was somewhere around fifteen.

"Don't worry, -, as long as I know you are ok I won't be fighting alone."

Reluctantly the girl ran after the others as the oldest boy turned and began walking the opposite way. The kid he had been arguing with ran up to him and they stared at each other for a moment; finally the oldest sighed and nodded.

"I guess I have no other choice, you promised me that you would always help me..." he said.

"That's right, you got me interested in magic, now we will fight this together."

They walked out into a field covered in what had appeared to be snow, but Raven could now see that it was more like ash than snow. In the near distance she could see a large group of things crawling towards the two lone teenage boys. In the air more creatures flew in the same direction. The monsters, as the boys had called them, didn't look that strong, but neither did the teenagers.

"Ready?" the oldest asked.

"When you are..." was the reply.

The two held out their hands and light began to appear in them. Raven suddenly realized that the two were using pure energy to fight the monsters. She watched on with interest as the two cast balls of pure energy at the monsters and slowly started using more advanced spells. Slowly the monsters began to fall but soon the two would be overrun. Raven wanted to yell out to them, to help in some way, but she knew she couldn't. This fight had already happened, the outcome already decided.

The two were fighting directly now, the monsters attacking them with claws and other limbs. She could see them getting wounded, failing... then, as they fell, she noticed something familiar. The oldest boy began to look a lot like Timothy... he stood up, cutting through the monsters above him. With one quick swing of his arm he obliterated the monsters over his friend who stood up. His friend was changed as well, glowing somehow.

"I think it's time to show these things what we are really made of..." the youngest said. "What do you think?"

"Absolution?"

"Yeah."

They clapped their left and right hands together and separated them. A burning, glowing ball appeared a foot away from them. The ball grew absorbing the ashy-snow around it and then the two lifted the balls into the air. Together they yelled, "Absolution!" and Raven snapped back to reality.

Raven looked down at the book in her hands. The text was fading, but she could still see the two teens fighting to save their friends. It was similar to what she did, except she was more sure of her powers. Those two... it seemed as though they had just begun to discover what they could do.

---

That night, after a long day for everyone, Raven went to bed knowing that she was in for another interesting dream. She fell asleep quickly enough, and found herself back in the mountainous world she was beginning to know very well. This time, it seemed, Timothy was waiting for her. He was sitting just three feet from where she arrived.

"I see you have finally figured out how to begin unlocking the secrets from within my book." He said as she noticed him. "The past you have witnessed thus far had been buried from human eyes for many billions of years. So long, in fact, that I no longer conceder that universe to be my home..."

"I'm sorry, I thought I was welcome to read the book, I..."

"No, do not apologize, I gave you the book for a reason, and though it wasn't so you could read my deep past, I still intended you to learn more about me. I assume that you noticed that all of the names had been cut..."

"Yes, I had noticed... is there something you are intending to hide?"

"Only my true identity, and those of my friends." He replied. "You see, Raven, something you must understand is that there is not one universe..."

"I know that." Raven said. "I was born in another one..."

"And there is not one set of universes." Timothy continued. "In truth there are billions of universes, divided into dimensions, and realities, all coexisting within this existence. The thing is, the main form of communication between the universes and realities are stories..."

"I don't understand," Raven said, "What do you mean by stories?"

"It is something I have lived with all of my life... everything is written, even us, even now..."

"So, you are saying that what is happening here is being written somewhere else?" Raven asked. "Somehow I am not surprised, but does that mean that all of that fiction that I have read really happened somewhere?"

"Yes... but not just books, video is another form of storytelling... Everything, absolutely everything ever told has happened somewhere."

Raven gasped, a look of horror ripping across her face. She had suddenly realized the extent of horror stories she had read... all of those people, all of those events. They were real? No, no, how could it be. She felt sick just thinking about some of the things she had read happen to people.

"I see you finally understand..." Timothy said. "Now, on to liter matters. Since my younger self has become friendlier with the other titans I have begun to be able to extend into their minds as well. Last night I entered Robin's dream..."

"So that's why it took you so long to appear here." Raven said.

"Yes, I needed to speak with him alone." Timothy told her. "But tonight I want you to come with me into another's dreams."

"Who?"

"Cyborg." Timothy said. "I want to make him an offer."

"Really?" Raven asked, a skeptical smile crossing her face. "You are starting to sound like..."

"The devil?" Timothy finished. "Well, my deals usually don't involve souls being exchanged for what I offer. Cyborg wishes to become human again, I can give him half of that request, but not all of it."

"Like when Terra was brought back to life the first time?"

"No, that wasn't really Terra." Timothy replied. "That was a shell that looked like Terra, but her real soul had left it long before..."

"Yes," Raven said, "And I hear that you took it."

"This is true, Raven, but I took her soul not to kill her but to save her. I brought her from this universe a torn and battered soul, and brought her back stronger than she could have ever become without my aid." He told Raven. "Timothy revived her body and restarted her mind but her soul was not in that body any more. All that was left were her memories, her fear, anger, hatred and just a small amount of love. That is why none of you realized anything was wrong."

Timothy stood and held his arm out to Raven. "Come, my dear, our appointment awaits." He said.

Raven looked at his hand skeptically but took it anyway. Timothy pulled her closer and with a wave of light they left her dream and moved on to another. As the light died down Timothy gently released her and she stepped back. They found themselves in a high school football stadium. There was a large crowd of people cheering on the players, and as Raven looked closer she recognized Cyborg, but he was fully human.

Timothy walked down the stands, no one noticing him, and as Cyborg made the final touchdown and the crowd went wild Timothy began clapping. On his third clap everyone except for Raven, Cyborg and Timothy disappeared. Timothy continued clapping until Cyborg noticed him and came running over to investigate.

"Bravo, Cyborg, nicely done." Timothy said. "It truly is sad that it couldn't last, isn't it?"

"Who are you?" Cyborg replied. "How do you know who I am, and what the heck happened to everyone else."

"Relax, Cyborg, there never really was anyone else here, just you, me and her." Timothy said calmly. "This is simply a dream that I have entered, and I've come to make you a proposition."

"You still haven't told me who you are." Cyborg said and Raven began to notice that he was starting to look like the Cyborg she knew.

Timothy reached out and touched Cyborg's pointing finger and his human body disappeared into his current mechanical body. Cyborg gaped in horror at the sudden transformation and balled his hands into fists. He threw a punch but Timothy simply caught the fist and held it.

"Here is my proposition, I can restore your human body and appearance, at least for the most part. You would still have mechanical parts but they would be nanobotic technology. The technology that I work with is far superior to any current human technology and would allow you to truly go from human..." here he paused and Cyborg once again became human, "to cyborg." And Cyborg shifted back to Cyborg in the same way he had with the holographic projector.

"And what would I have to _give_ in return?"

"All I can really ask in return is that you remain with the Teen Titans after you are restored to human form. The nanobotic technology feeds off of ambient energies around it so your power source would last as long as you do, and they would be able to grow with your body so they would never need to be maintained..."

"That's it, that's all you ask?" Cyborg asked. "I can't believe it could be so easy."

"The problem is that it will take a lot of energy and time to do. I cannot _simply_ do this, not in my current state at least, and it would have to be something like this..." he waved his arm and they were back when he fought against Slade and truly revived Terra. "Except you probably won't have to die for it to happen."

"Probably?" Cyborg asked.

"Well, you've already died. No human life could survive such a dramatic transformation from organic to cybernetic. But they revived you then..."

"And why should I _trust_ you?" Cyborg asked.

"Because I do." Raven said walking forward. "Timothy has already saved us many times, and he helped some of us individually, such as Terra..."

"Raven?" Cyborg asked. "How, why?"

"He brought me..." She replied. "I'm still not really sure why though. He seems to be doing a good enough job on his own..."

"But, Raven, I need you... I _can't_ live without you." Timothy said, pouting.

"You did for a couple billion years..." Raven mumbled.

"Anyway, like I said it will take a while." Timothy said. "I cannot leave, um... here, except on very specific occasions."

"Alright, I'll accept your help." Cyborg said. "But don't do anything to loose my trust."

"I wouldn't _dream_ of it... not intentionally." Timothy said taking Raven's hand again. In a flash they were gone and back in Raven's dream.

"Why did you want me to come along for that?" Raven asked.

"You've begun to see my beginning, now I want you to see how I continue that legacy..." he leaned forward and kissed Raven on the forehead.

---

The next morning Raven awoke to find that Timothy had already woken up and was no longer in her room. She finished dressing and left her room to find him; it was early in the morning and Raven felt that this would be a good time to talk with Timothy since all the others were probably still asleep.

She walked aimlessly around the tower for a few minutes, then finally realized that she was looking for him in the wrong places. She headed up to the rooftop and looked around. It was empty, but Raven felt that she had gone up there for another reason. She walked over to the edge facing the ocean and looked down towards the water; there, sitting on a rock by the water, she saw Timothy sitting peacefully watching the waves.

Raven flew off of the roof and alighted behind Timothy. She walked forward, watching to see what he would do. As she watched him she noticed something going on around him. As he inhaled and exhaled a number of things were set into motion. The stone to his right rose and fell as though it were made of liquid and a plant that was slightly ahead and to his right seemed to breathe with him. A small fire directly in front of him rose and fell as he breathed, and next to that a ball of electricity charged and discharged. To his left a _ball_ of wind seemed to move to his breathing, and behind and to his left frost formed and melted on the ground and into the air. Directly behind him a small puddle of water rose and fell as the rock did and to the right of that the stone was becoming metallic as it rose and fell.

Suddenly, as Raven watched, all eight lifted from the ground and formed balls in the air. They still moved as he breathed but now they formed shapes and designs within the air. Slowly, from the front three and the ball of air a pure white light began to emanate and as it did from the back three and the stone light was drained into darkness. The light and darkness moved from the elements and formed their own balls revolving around the inner eight.

"I know you are there, Raven." Timothy said. "Come, sit, join me in meditation if you wish."

"Oh, I, uh." Raven replied, slightly flustered. She hadn't tried to be quiet as she moved behind him but she also hadn't thought he had noticed her. "Thank you." and she sat in her meditative position. After about three minutes Raven spoke again, "I know why I needed to meditate, and I believe you do as well, but why are you?"

"Balance," Timothy replied calmly. "As you needed to maintain control over your emotions, and thus your powers, so must I maintain balance over the energies within myself."

"But you didn't need to do this before..."

"No... I didn't, but this morning I feel far more powerful than I remember ever feeling. It is as though powers that I didn't even know I had have become unlocked, and with them great knowledge and responsibility. I awoke and felt the strong urge to meditate, to expand my knowledge, and have been here ever since."

"When did you wake up?" Raven asked, wondering how long he had been here.

"Only a minute before you did." He replied. "But today I don't feel hungry, or tired, nor do I feel as though I need anything... except..." he trialed off.

Raven waited a few moments for him to speak again but when he didn't she asked. "Except what?"

The elements flashed, growing larger and somehow brighter for a moment, but they faded back to their original sizes and brightness. He then spoke, but it was obvious that he was avoiding her question, "I saw you reading last night. After talking with the others for a few hours I came back up to your room and you were sitting on your bed... it must be a fascinating book, you didn't notice me at all."

At this Raven blushed, she had been reading _his_ book, though he didn't know it. She remembered that he wasn't supposed to find anything about himself deliberately, not from her, and not from his book. Thinking of something else to say she hesitated just long enough for Timothy to speak again.

"Can I see the book?" he asked.

Now Raven jumped, she had hoped he wouldn't ask that question. "No." she replied.

"Why not?" Timothy asked, curiosity breaking into his calm.

Raven thought fast, but the only thing that came to mind was, "You are too young."

Timothy laughed, the elements falling out of place as he did so. He opened his eyes and smiled warmly at her. Raven smiled back, she hadn't felt this way since... since last time she held a 'living' book... But of course that was different, Timothy was not bound to the book and asking her to release him...

As the elements fell back into place Timothy asked, "Your magic, you use shadow, and, more recently, light, but would you wish to learn other forms?"

"I... what?" Raven asked confused and flattered at the same time.

"I can teach you. I know many spells, and many other forms of magic that do not require words." He told her. "I'm not sure how I know them but I remember each as if I had studied it for a _lifetime_. I know I can teach you, if you want to learn."

"I'm not sure I can learn..." Raven said. "All I've known was the magic that my father gave me and healing... I've tried to learn other magic... but nothing came of it."

"You are referring to the dragon, yes?" Timothy asked.

"How do you... yes, I am referring to him." Raven replied.

"You used all of the magics you had learned from him to seal him away again." Timothy said. "All of the magics you had learned had been from him and _his_ books, he had never meant to allow you to use them after you freed him. That is why you cannot use those magics now."

"How do you know?" Raven asked.

Timothy closed his hands and brought them to his sides. The elements followed their paths and dissolved into his cape, cloak and gloves, which appeared and disappeared just for that moment. He then stood and walked to Raven; gently lifting her hand in his he laid its palm into the air. After a few seconds a light blue flame appeared above her hand. He placed his other hand above hers and the flame passed through eight different colors and disappeared. Slowly it was replaced by each element in turn, including metal, wood-or life-ice and electricity.

"You have the ability to learn... everyone has the ability, but you are exceptional. Even without any memories, and without any understanding I could see that in you. Magic is almost at a balance within you and your potential is great... I guess that's why from the moment I saw you I lo..." Timothy blushed scarlet and turned away.

Raven blushed as well but for her this was a moment she felt she had been waiting for for a long time. He had expressed his feelings for her before, but that was always in her dreams, now, for the first time he could do it in the physical world. She took his hands, which were still around hers and leaned forward. He looked into her eyes and slowly they leaned closer until...

Somewhere above them a rooster crowed. The two backed off and looked to the roof of the tower where a green rooster was seen walking away. Raven silently though, _Beast Boy! I'll get you for that._ But said nothing.

Timothy turned back to her and smiled, then grinned, stood up and pulled her up. "Come on, breakfast is ready."


	11. Ye Fight 'Fore Ye Fight

Yes, there are only a few chapters until the story... Well, I won't ruin it for you any more than I have. Just be warned... (insert evil laugh)

* * *

When Raven and Timothy entered the room they found that the other titans were already up and breakfast had been made. When the others saw Timothy they nodded and Beast Boy greeted Raven and brought her to her seat at the table. Raven didn't know what to think, had the others been up when she had woken up? she didn't remember running into any of them, though she had avoided the common room for Beast Boy and Terra...

"What would you like?" Beast Boy asked.

"I don't understand..." Raven replied.

"Well, we all made you breakfast. Timothy asked us to, and we all agreed."

"Timothy _asked_ you all to make _me_ breakfast?" Raven asked obviously startled.

"Yes," Timothy said from the counter. "I woke them all up and asked if they would help me. They agreed and I went outside to distract you as they finished preparations."

"Why?" Raven asked.

"I nearly told you when we were outside, but..." Timothy glanced over at Beast Boy.

"Heh, sorry 'bout that." Beast Boy said. "So, what would ya like?"

"I don't know... what did you all make?" Raven asked looking at the counter full of good looking food.

"Bacon, eggs, cereal, both warm and cold, ham..." Beast Boy listed off all of the different breakfast dishes they had made. Raven expected him to be disgusted with the meat products but he didn't seem bothered at all. She'd have to ask him about it later.

"I'd like a glass of tea and..." Raven thought about it for a moment. "Bacon, eggs and pancakes."

"Comin' right up." Beast Boy walked back to the counter and Timothy gathered the foods.

Timothy brought Raven her food and laid it on the table in front of her. Condiments were already on the table, including a number of different brands of syrup. Raven heard the others getting their food and they came to join Timothy and her at the table. When everyone was seated Timothy stood holding a glass of apple juice.

"To fair weather and a bountiful harvest." Timothy said raising his glass.

The other titans stared at him for a few seconds, and he looked around at them. "Oh, sorry, wrong toast..." he said and laughed. "To a dark witch with a radiant golden heart, one who, even though she had been told all her life she would bring about destruction still tried to make the world a better place."

Raven was shocked, and she blushed as the others raised their glasses in agreement. Timothy hadn't been here when her father had attacked, and though it was true that he had heard about when they told Terra how did he know what Robin had said? or did he come up with that on his own?

"To good friends who are always there for each other, may I be able to help you all as you have helped me." Timothy finished and sat.

As everyone began to eat Raven though about all that had happened. She knew that Timothy was not from this universe, similar to Larry, and she knew that before he had lost everything he had traveled quite a bit. She also knew that everything was a story somewhere, but did that mean that Timothy had been watching her before he had come here? Perhaps she would have to ask the older Timothy tonight.

When Raven finished eating something occurred to her. She quietly ducked out of the room and made her way back to hers. Once there she sat on her bed and extracted the book. If there was any way to find out more this was probably it. She opened the book and flipped it to a random page. Surprisingly the words were already visible. She began reading them and realized why.

"In the beginning I had no visible powers, or if I did they were completely dormant. Then, one day, a world wide event occurred causing all magic to be released and magnified. This effectively became a natural disaster and for many people was the end of the world, but for me and a group of students for my school it was far different. That was the true beginning of my travels, of my quest to gain absolute power to be able to help all others. Once I had the ability I went to many universes to see what I could learn and who I could help with my abilities. To this day I continue on that path, but a few things have changed..."

"I see you are reading that book again." Timothy said from the door. "May I please see it?"

Raven jumped and turned to look at him. "No, not yet." she replied placing the book back. "But some day I will give it to you."

"I know... and I know the book is mine but I cannot read it yet." Timothy replied.

"When did you figure it out?" Raven asked.

"The first time I saw it." Timothy replied. "I could feel something from it calling to me. Then when I saw you reading it a memory came back from my past, but it was fractured... I realized that as you read the memory from the book it revived within my mind." Timothy sighed. "But I can't remember everything that way. The magics within me must remain balanced or something bad will happen, I'm not sure what, but I feel that it will."

Timothy slowly walked over to Raven. As he walked he moved his hands together and slowly separated them; Raven could see various colors of light appear and disappear between his hands as he separated them. When he reached her and finally opened his hands a small rose had materialized. He handed the rose to Raven and she took it smiling, blush running across her cheeks.

"As long as I keep my energies balanced and under control everything will be fine." Timothy said. "And when I am with you it feels easier to keep them balanced."

"Not long ago it was difficult for me to keep my magic under control, but now it seems that I don't have to worry about it as much." Raven replied. "I feel as though that has something to do with you."

Raven slipped off of her bed and Timothy leaned closer to her. He had grown and they were about the same age now, though Timothy was just slightly taller than Raven. He slowly moved his arms around her, and she moved hers around him. Their heads moved closer and they closed their eyes...

"Raven... Oh, um, sorry." Starfire said from Raven's open door. "I didn't mean to interrupt."

Raven and Timothy broke apart and Timothy shrank back to his ten year old self. Raven glanced over at Starfire, a momentary glare fading quickly. Timothy looked out Raven's window, his entire face covered in red.

"What do you need Starfire?" Raven asked.

"I would like to speak with Timothy." Starfire said.

Timothy jumped slightly and turned around, his face its normal color. He looked at Starfire and walked forward. "What do you need me for?" Timothy asked. "How can I help?"

"The others have been talking about how you have been helping them, or offering help for them." Starfire said. "I do not mean to sound full of greed but why have you not visited me?"

"You haven't needed me to yet." Timothy replied. "As far as I can tell, now at least, there is nothing you need me for. I have helped Terra by reviving her, Beast Boy by reviving Terra... but, I don't know what to do for you." Timothy paused for a moment and spoke again. "But, the lease I can do for now is tell you that the one you love feels the same for you."

"Really?" Starfire asked. "You're sure?"

Timothy nodded and Starfire left the room with a fairly large grin. When she had left Timothy turned back to Raven and smiled. "An hour or two ago I offered to teach you the magics that I know. The offer is still there, and I do hope you will accept it."

"To teach me to control other elements than just darkness?" Raven asked.

"And light, yes." Timothy said. "But I have found that magic goes far beyond the twelve elements and the ten powers. I have been able to control the very fabrics of the universes itself. I am no god but I have tasted godhood."

Timothy moved his hands before him and energy began to gather in a sphere between them. He moved his hands two feet apart as the energy expanded, contracted, and convulsed. A ring of light appeared beneath his feet and extended consuming the entire room with a very dark shade of blue and slowly the universe appeared before them. He flexed his fingers and the ball between them detonated creating a bright yellow-white light. Around the light four smaller red orbs revolved, each a different size but all far smaller than the ball in the center. As the small red balls rotated they began to change to a cool brown or light brown and over a short period of time two began to show signs of blue. Slowly shades of green appeared across the two blue and brown orbs until one of the other two hit the one furthest from the center. The two became red once again but cooled quickly enough and once again but this time the furthest orb had a smaller orb revolving around it. The furthest orb became blue once again, and then blue and green.

"It's earth?" Raven gasped. "These are planets? And this the sun?"

"Yes and no. What you see I have created here, even the space around us was created. A small universe which we are seeing, not with our physical bodies, though we truly are here, but with our mind and spirit. I have much that I can do, and much that I can teach you, dear Raven."

"But why? Why me?" Raven asked.

"Because of who you are, who you've chosen to become." Timothy replied. "Because of the great powers within you that remain untapped. You are powerful but your arts are limited by your knowledge. Please, allow me to extend that knowledge so that your true potential can be met."

"And if I choose not to accept your offer to teach me?" Raven asked.

"Then I will accept your decision and remain here, but not teach you." Timothy replied calmly. "However, if you choose to accept I will be here and I will show you nearly all that I know. There are some things that I cannot teach you because of time and the limitations of the universe itself, but all else that I can I will teach."

"Allow me to think about it," Raven replied. "and I will give you my reply as soon as I know."

"Take your time, Raven, I will be here for a while yet. There is only one time limit to this offer and that is the limit of your current life. Beyond that I will be unable to keep this offer..." Timothy said. "But listen to me... I'm sounding so formal. Sorry 'bout that."

The stars and galaxies disappeared from around them and the planets and sun faded with it. Timothy was back to his old... uh, young, cheerful self again. He smiled at Raven and began walking to her door.

"Where are you going?" Raven asked.

"I'm going to go into the city," He replied. "I feel as though something is waiting there for me. If I run into any trouble I'll be sure to contact you or the other titans."

He left the room and the door closed behind him. Raven watched the closed door. He was such a strange boy, and yet she was attracted to him. She didn't feel as though she was under a spell, and yet, she did. He was so kind to her and he asked nothing in return, except for her help every so often. What was it about him?

---

Timothy walked up to the roof. It was getting chilly and as the wind blew Timothy could feel the cold wrap around him. He shivered and moved his clothes further around himself. Then he laughed and, holding out his right hand, flexed it. A brisk wind appeared around Timothy's body and he felt warm again.

Slowly he walked over to the edge of the tower's roof and looked out over the ocean towards the city. He laughed again and unfolded his two pair of wings from under his cape and flexed them. With one quick movement he was aloft, floating through the air as though he were being held up. He angled his body towards the city and with another quick flap he was moving quickly over the ocean. Within a few seconds he was over the city and he alighted on the roof of a skyscraper.

Slowly Timothy gazed out over the city and finally fixed his eyes on something. He jumped into the air and was off again. Lowering himself down over the road and cars he flew quickly to the thing he had spotted. Suddenly he was out over a black van and he landed softly on it. The van carried him across the city and stopped in front of a museum. It was hard to believe but the idiotic criminals that seemed to thrive in this world would attempt to rob a museum in broad daylight with the Teen Titans only an emergency call away.

Timothy hopped off of the roof of the van and landed silently on the sidewalk. Two men walked out of the van and around to the back. These two were not wearing the normal criminal attire, dark cloths with some kind of mask, but instead were wearing a kind of business suit. Timothy watched them curiously as they opened the back of the van and took out a large crate. A security guard came down to meet with them and the three carried the crate up to the doors of the museum. Timothy followed them inside and walked with them past a number of priceless artifacts, jeweled pots and other jeweled objects. Finally they stopped at a pedestal that was open and had nothing in it.

"I really think you should have brought this at a later time." The security guard said. "During the museum's open hours is just asking for trouble."

"And when would you have suggested?" one of the men asked. "At night is more dangerous than during the day."

"Besides, this city is protected by the Teen Titans, isn't it? Everything will be fine."

"No it won't..." Timothy muttered to himself as they pulled out two crystal rings, two crystal bracelets, a crystal necklace and a crystal crown. The crystals appeared to be precious gemstones and the metals appeared to be gold and silver but Timothy knew better. He also knew that every criminal would be attracted to this new addition, not only for their beauty but also for their hidden power.

"So, where did your team find these?" The guard asked as another suited man walked towards them.

"Oddly enough they were found in six different parts around the world. One was found in the north pole, one in the south and the others around the equator." One of the two men said. "They were quite the find."

"Nearly impossible too." The other man said. "We actually didn't find the ones at the poles, they were found by people who were working at the scientific research labs there..."

"Ah, thank you two for your contribution to my museum." The owner said, having finally reached them. "And who is this young man?" he asked looking at Timothy.

"What young man?" one of the two men asked looking around.

"There are just the two, sir." The guard said.

"But I see him right there." The owner said pointing at Timothy.

Timothy was surprised; his spell should have kept him invisible from everyone until he chose to take it down. Why could this man see him? He must have intense inner strength to break past his spell. "Sir, the others can't see me." Timothy said. "I am here to protect the jewels."

"You are?" the man said. "Then you must be with the Teen Titans."

"Correct." Timothy said. "And I believe that someone will attempt to steal them very soon. In fact, I can almost guaranty it... if you will step back a foot or two, and tell the others to do the same."

"I believe it would be wise to step back..." The owner said watching Timothy. "Now!"

As he said now there was a crash of breaking glass and smoke filled the room. Footsteps slowly echoed through the room as someone walked calmly towards the open pedestal that was to display the jewels. Within a few seconds the footsteps stopped and Slade said, "Well, that was far easier than I thought it would be. Now to get my hands on this ultimate power I've heard so much about..."

---

Robin knocked on Raven's door. He had noticed something about Timothy, now that he could speak, and he wanted to verify it with Raven. She opened her door and greeted him. He walked in and began, "Raven, you're with Timothy more than any of us, have you noticed that his personality seems to change, often?"

Raven thought about the question for a few seconds and answered, "Yes, I have noticed that. It seems that he can change from speaking and acting one way to another almost without warning. Why do you ask?"

"I think he may be dangerous." Robin said.

"What makes you say that?" Raven asked calmly.

"If he were to suddenly become violent... like you his powers are amazing and I just don't think any of us could stop him."

Raven remembered the times when Timothy had begun to show his powers: the fight against the robbers, the fight against Control Freak, and the recent fight against Slade. During each of the fights there had been a point where Raven had seen intense darkness in Timothy, but each time it had faded, each time he had saved them. Raven also remembered the white light within her and the book, she knew that if anything happened to Timothy to make him become violent and out of control she could stop him; he had chosen her for that job...

"What do the others think of this?" Raven asked.

"I haven't spoken with them yet." Robin said. "I wanted to know what you thought first."

"I want to know what they think." Raven said. "And then I will make my decision."

"All right." Robin replied and they left her room.

---

Timothy knew where Slade was, he could feel his presence. Timothy also knew that Slade already had a crystal, even if Slade himself did not know. Slowly, quietly, Timothy positioned himself between Slade and the crystal artifacts. As Slade reached forward Timothy released his hold on his cape and the cloak around him lifted. Now that he was visible again he spoke, "You're going to have difficulty achieving this ultimate power you want." Timothy inhaled and blew, pushing the smoke away. "Because I cannot allow you to take these."

"Ah, the little boy wishes to try and stop me." Slade sneered.

"You were stopped last time." Timothy said.

"But you were in control of far more of your power then." Slade replied. "Now... now you are every bit as weak as them."

"True, the titans may not have ever been able to capture you, but that's not what I intend to do." Timothy said calmly.

Slade prepared himself for a fight, moving his arms and legs. "Are you going to attack me, then? You, a boy half the size of me? Don't make me laugh!"

Timothy also prepared himself for the coming battle. This wasn't going to be easy, Slade was the most dangerous criminal that the Titans had fought, and he after being revived he had become even more dangerous. The crystal that had somehow embedded itself in his skull didn't help either, but Timothy knew he could defeat him, or at least fend him off from the crystals.

Timothy raised his hands balling them as though gripping baseballs. Two lights appeared within his hands and he threw them into the ground. A similar effect as when he was in Ravens room slid across the floor, ceiling and walls. Slowly the museum became quiet as all of the people within it disappeared. Outside an invisible wall built itself around the building creating a shield twelve feet from its walls. When he was done Timothy moved himself back into a guarding position.

"Cleaver, trying to protect everyone." Slade said. "But are you trying to protect them from me, or from you?"

"I'm not just protecting the people, Slade, but the objects in this building as well. Everything you see now can be broken, but once the shield comes down it will be as though nothing happened at all." Timothy said. "A useful trick when you are trying to protect the things around you."

"Cleaver, but it left you wide open." Slade said and he disappeared.

Slade reappeared next to Timothy swinging his fist into Timothy's side. Timothy felt the blow and flew across the room narrowly missing a number of priceless vases. He hit the wall and bounced to the floor. Slade moved again and stomped on Timothy's back forcing him into the hard tiled floor. Moving quickly Slade grabbed Timothy's arms and flung him into the opposite wall.

"This is too easy." Slade said to himself walking to the crystal artifacts.

"Perhaps it isn't as easy as you think." Timothy said, lifting himself from the floor. "I don't just wear these clothes because they look cool, they also provide armor and shielding to my body, as well as focusing my energy."

"That won't help you as soon as I have these." Slade said reaching for the artifacts.

Timothy disappeared and Slade flew backwards; as he slowed and finally stopped himself he looked around to see where the next attack was coming from. Suddenly his head was hit and he flew over a number of displays. Bouncing off the ground he caught himself and blocked as another attack came. He grabbed Timothy's hand and threw him into the ceiling; then the floor. As Timothy rebounded off the floor Slade kicked him in the head and sent him flying into a wall. The wall cracked under the force and Timothy fell to the floor.

"Your clothes may provide armor but if I cut through them they won't do you any good." Slade said walking into a nearby room and taking a sward from a display. "And I know just how I can do so." He gripped the sward and a dark flame ripped through it. In one quick move he was standing over Timothy and thrusting the sward down on him.

---

Robin had gathered the other titans and they were sitting in the common room. After his conversation with Raven he had decided to call a meeting to discuss Timothy's fate within the Teen Titans, and he had done so immediately. If the others deemed him dangerous then they would decide how to act, if not they would decide what to do then.

Beast Boy and Terra were sitting in the middle with Cyborg and Starfire on either end. Raven was standing off in a corner, her 'usual' self. Robin decided to start, "When we first found him we had to make a decision, now we need to make it again. We now know what Timothy is capable of, at least at some level. He's dangerous, but we need to decide if he _is_ a danger."

"So, then, what, we're voting on how dangerous we think Timothy is?" Beast Boy asked.

"Is this fair?" Starfire asked. "Has he not helped us up till now, and without asking anything in return?"

"I don't think it is fair, but I have to agree with Robin." Cyborg said. "Timothy has far too much power."

"I seem to remember three of us having this problem at least once before." Beast Boy said. "Raven, Terra and I had, at one point, been thought of as a threat..."

"Yeah, when I first came to this team Raven didn't trust me at all." Terra agreed. "I had too much power and no control over it, that's what she said."

"And now I don't even question her being on this team." Raven said from her spot by the wall.

"Are you all saying that you don't think Timothy is dangerous?" Robin asked.

"No, man, what we are saying is that we're all dangerous, we just control the power that we have." Cyborg said. "If Timothy ever truly became a danger to us or the city we'd just deal with him as we do our other teammates."

"All right, it's agreed then. Timothy can stay as long as he chooses." Robin said. "As long as he controls his powers and doesn't attack innocent people he will be welcome in this team."

They all nodded as Raven walked to the window and looked towards the city. Even from the tower she could see the shadow around the museum, and she knew what it meant. Just before the alarm went off she said, "Trouble."

"Where?" Robin asked over the alarm.

"The historical arts museum." Raven said moving towards the door. "Timothy's already there."

The others looked at one another. How had Timothy known that there would be criminal activity? Was _he_ causing this? They got up and quickly ran after Raven.


	12. Bad Things and Worse Things

Ah, yes, sorry it took so long, I kind of had to tweek it a little. Here is the next chapter, I hope you enjoy it.

* * *

There was a sickening sound as blood sprayed everywhere. The sword had gone directly through Timothy and he was holding onto the hilt as Slade walked towards the crystal artifacts. Blood poured onto the ground from both ends of the wound as Timothy struggled to stand and pull the sward out. 

"I'm disappointed, you aren't as strong as you pretended to be." Slade said reaching for the artifacts.

As Slade's hand moved in to touch the artifacts they shimmered and bent away from him. He grabbed for them again but again his hand passed through them. Frustrated he hit the stand and his hand passed through it as well.

"I'm not so week after all." Timothy said, blood dripping from his mouth.

"Where did you hide them?" Slade asked walking over to Timothy. "You will be dead soon anyway so it is no use trying to hide their location."

"I'll be dead will I?" Timothy asked and coughed. "I highly doubt that."

Timothy reached out his hand and his flesh began to stretch. As it stretched and grew it slowly took form and suddenly there was another Timothy laying on the floor completely healed. The second Timothy stood up and pulled the sword out of the first, then helping the first up they fused together again. Timothy threw the sword back into the room it had come from and put his hands together.

"You won't kill me that easily." Timothy said as an orb of light began to grow within his hands. "And you won't get the crystals easily either."

"But I _will_ get them." Slade said. "And no one will be able to get in my way."

"We'll see." Timothy said and disappeared.

Slade readied himself for the attack but little could have prepared him for the floor. The ground beneath him began to move as though it were a living liquid. It lifted up around Slade's body and closed around him. Slade struggled and fought to get free but the liquid ground held him too tightly for him to move. Timothy reappeared, his arms and hands held out as though he was holding a bow and arrow, the light within his right hand. He released the light and it shot towards Slade.

"Mistake." Slade said as the orb shot towards him. It stopped an inch from his body and, turning dark, smashed into the liquid ground. The ground shattered and Slade rushed out. He grabbed Timothy around the neck and threw him into the wall. The wall buckled under the force and cracked inward. Timothy gasped for air and kicked Slade in the stomach.

Once free Timothy grabbed Slade by the arm and flung him across the room, breaking a number of stands in the process and shattering priceless artwork. Slade caught himself and rushed Timothy again, moving into a kick and pushing Timothy back into the wall. The wall broke and Timothy fell through. Slade jumped over the young boy and moved to punch him but Timothy caught the fist and thrust Slade upward into the ceiling. Seeing his chance Timothy dodged a few feet away and readied another attack. Slade stopped himself as he fell to the ground, landing on his arms and legs, and got up quickly. Timothy was ready though and rushed Slade holding his hand as though it was a blade. Slashing at Slade, Timothy rushed, dodged, and jumped trying to get a good hit. Slade expected the attack to be the hand itself but was cut by something unseen, until he realized that the blade actually extended a food off of Timothy's hand.

Not Slade was dodging as Timothy attacked, trying to slice and cut. Finally Slade saw his moment as he jumped up and Timothy cut into a display case showing a few cavemen and a saber-tooth tiger. Timothy broke through the glass and stumbled into one of the cavemen. He ducked quickly as Slade's foot flew past where his head had been. Dodging the next few kicks Timothy moved over to the tiger and passed his hand over it. The tiger came to life and began attacking Slade. With Slade distracted Timothy moved out of the display and back into the room with the crystal artifacts. Quickly he grabbed the necklace and rings but before he was able to grab the other items the head of the tiger flew past him.

Timothy put the necklace on and slipped on the rings and dodged as a vase flew past him. He clapped his hands together and moved them apart, forming a sword out of energy. He thrust the sword into the ground beneath him and a crack formed around the podium holding the crystal artifacts. The floor broke and fell through landing on the floor beneath. As it fell and landed one of the bracelets bounced off and flew back though the hole. Timothy looked up in horror as Slade caught the bracelet and slipped it on.

Looking quickly around him Timothy noticed that there were suits of armor lined up. He passed his hand around himself in a circle and the armor came alive. Quickly he cut the podium and the remaining artifacts scattered around the room, he took off the rings and threw them to the armor. The armor picked them up and other suits moved to attack Slade. Timothy leapt into the air and ran across the heads of the armor as Slade crashed through the first one. Timothy slashed his sword down on Slade but Slade stopped it with his hand. With one quick punch Timothy flew through the air and hit a stand of medieval weapons. Another suit of armor flew through the air and crashed into the wall near Timothy.

---

The teen titans were speeding in the T-Car towards the museum. The shadow around it was getting closer as they neared the museum and slowly they were beginning to wonder what it was. Raven, who was sitting in back between Starfire and Terra (Beast Boy was a kitten on Terra's lap), was sure she knew, at least in part, what the shadow was, or at least what it meant. Timothy was there, and he was fighting.

There was another reason she knew this; she could feel it. She could sense the battle that was going on. It was strange, normally she could sense things, but this was different. She could not only sense it from her own powers but also from...

"The book..." Raven said materializing it.

Raven opened the book and Starfire and Terra looked over at it curiously. Raven flipped through the blank pages looking for something, anything, that would tell her what was happening. Suddenly, as she flipped past it, she saw the page that had shown a picture of her. She flipped back to it and looked at the picture. The picture showed her, standing in her white cloths, her eyes closed and her shadow around her hands. Around her were symbols that she didn't recognize and in the background was an image of a raven, but with four wings, two normal ones and two pure white ones.

"Um, Raven, I don't mean to be bothersome, but why do the pages not have any text?" Starfire asked.

"Yeah," Terra agreed. "And where did you pull that from anyway?"

"Timothy gave it to me, the pages only appear to be blank." Raven replied, not really paying any attention. "I can read some of it, and that's what I am doing now."

"We're almost there." Robin told the others. "Get ready for anything."

---

Timothy ran into another room and was surprised at how big the museum really was. This room contained artwork, mostly in paintings but there were some others. Timothy stopped, breathed and relaxed. It was nice and peaceful in this room, and the air-conditioning felt like a calming breeze.

Timothy wondered how the armor was doing. He closed his eyes and searched the museum. Most of the armor had been destroyed, but a few were still moving around. The ones he had put the crystal artifacts were still moving through the museum and were far enough away from Slade that it was unlikely that he would find them very quickly. Still, Timothy needed to be sure that Slade was slowed down more than he already was.

Relaxing his body and his mind he focused on one of the armor. Moving his mind from his body to the armor he possessed it and moved it towards a display of stuffed animals that was supposed to look realistic. He broke through the glass and passed the armor's hand over the animals. They came to life and began moving around the armor. Quickly Timothy moved to each of the displays and brought the animals to life.

"That should do for now." Timothy said aloud.

"Not if they don't get here before I rip you apart." Slade said.

Timothy gasped and opened his eyes. Slade was standing directly in front of him, the bracelet on his arm shining a dark color. Timothy jumped and began running; as he ran he moved his hands along the paintings. Each time his hand passed over a painting the paint began to bubble and move and slowly the people and creatures within the paintings came to life and formed outside of the painting. The paint-creatures began moving towards Slade and attacking.

Timothy heard splatters as Slade slashed and hacked through the paint. Timothy knew he needed to find something more solid and as he passed by a stone statue he got an idea. Quickly he ran back to it and touched the floor below the statue. It stood and moved behind Timothy placing itself into a blocking position. Timothy turned around and placed both hands on the statue's back; then after pushing them into the solid stone he pulled apart. As the statue split apart it formed two separate, complete statues. Timothy repeated this until he had nine of the statues moving around.

Thinking quickly he put his hands together and created a spell. As he pulled his hands apart the spell formed a glowing orb, which he placed into one of the statues. The statue began to bend and change as though it were melting, but as it moved it began to form a replica of Timothy himself. The statue looked at Timothy and they nodded. They both ran to the other statues and began doing the same spell he had just preformed until all of the statues were Timothys. Then the Timothys ran to the other statues and created more living statues. The process continued and Timothy ran out of the room, followed by some of his clones. They split up and ran in different directions, but now Timothy had a plan: he would bring everything in the museum to life and hopefully they would then have enough power to stop Slade, even with the power he was drawing from the crystals.

Timothy ran, passing by room after room. In each he would bring everything to life and if it was human-like he would make it look like him. If he found a weapon he would animate it as well or make it a replica of the crystal artifacts. When he reached the room with the dinosaur bones again he smiled and walked up to a raptor. He placed his hand on the skull of the dead beast and slowly the bones took on a golden white quality. Soon the raptor shook its body and took a step forward, nuzzling Timothy affectionately. Timothy silently smiled and placed his hand on the skull again. The raptor quickly split into three raptors and they moved around Timothy. Timothy created three more and moved on to the next dinosaur. Slowly he moved through all of the smaller ones and finally stared up at the brachiosaurus. He placed his hand on the foot of the gigantic beast and slowly the golden white shimmered across it. Lastly he looked at the tyrannosaurus-rex, and after bringing it to life he was done. Now, with a room full of living dinosaur bones he climbed onto the brachiosaurus and looked towards the ground where Slade was sure to come.

After a moment he sent out three raptors as sentries and created three more to replace them. Taking control of the lead raptor he moved through the museum looking for Slade. Everywhere he looked he found clones of himself or moving animals but Slade was nowhere to be seen. Frustrated Timothy searched through the 'minds' of all of his creations looking for signs of Slade but the last anything had seen him was in the art gallery.

The titans had reached the museum and were looking up at the dark barrier between them and the museum. Beast Boy walked towards the barrier and put his hand on it. Everyone expected him to be thrown back but his hand just rested on the moving and shifting barrier.

"It's smooth." Beast Boy said. "And it moves when I push it."

"I wonder." Terra said and lifted a chunk of earth. She slowly moved the chunk towards the barrier and began pushing it inward. Slowly the barrier gave way around it until it slipped inward and dropped to the ground.

"Why did you let it drop?" Robin asked.

"I didn't." Terra replied. "As soon as it got beyond the barrier I couldn't control it any more."

"My sensors are reading very strange physics beyond that barrier." Cyborg said. "I don't know what it is but it isn't safe."

"We need to get beyond that barrier." Robin said.

"I'll go." Starfire said. "I can withstand most hostile environments so I should be fine."

"Wait." Raven cut in. "I'll go. Timothy's on the other side of that barrier and I am sure I will be safe."

Raven walked up to the barrier holding out the book. As she moved against it she placed the book first and the book easily slipped through. She slowly followed and as she touched the barrier she was shrouded in shadow. Moments later she appeared on the other side of the barrier but this time she was shrouded in light.

"I'm going too." Terra said and quickly followed after Raven. "Timothy revived me and I owe him." She disappeared in a shroud of shadow and reappeared on the other side glowing with a golden light.

Slowly all the other titans followed Raven and Terra across the barrier. Each time they disappeared in a shroud of darkness and reappeared shrouded in light. Cyborg was covered in a light blue, Robin in red, Starfire in a light green, and Beast Boy in dark green. Once they were all beyond the barrier they looked around.

"This looks normal." Beast Boy said as they walked through the front doors.

"But there are no people." Starfire replied.

"And, that, isn't normal at all." Cyborg said as they entered the lobby of the museum and saw Timothy's creations.

A bear walked towards the titans looking at them curiously and as it neared them all the other creatures looked at the titans. Beast Boy turned into a bear and moved towards the other one. He tried to talk to the bear but both seemed confused, and when Beast Boy came back he said, "I can't understand anything it's saying."

"We have to find Timothy, and who ever is causing this." Robin said. "Let's split up."

The titans ran in separate directions and moved into the nearly crowded halls.

---

Timothy was lying in the skull of the brachiosaurus high above the mess of living skeletons beneath him. He had completely lost Slade's trail, but he knew that Slade had to be within the museum. Even with the powers from the crystals he couldn't break through the barrier. Things may be able to enter but once inside they couldn't escape until Timothy dropped the barrier, or died...

A ping went through his mind and Timothy realized that something had changed. Something was different in the lobby. Something... no, some things, human. Wait, no, only two were really human. The others were either alien or part human part something else... Raven? Raven, is that you?

Suddenly there was noise beneath Timothy. The brachiosaurus was moving, he opened his eyes and looked around. Slade! He had both bracelets and rings! With one hit he incinerated two velociraptors. A spike of terror struck through Timothy. Slade had more power now, he could do more! Any chance Timothy may have had before... now...

The tyrannosaurus-rex attacked Slade and as it bit down on him it disintegrated. Timothy slipped out of the skull of the brachiosaurus and jumped to the ceiling. His feet landed on the ceiling and he began running. Slade suddenly appeared directly in front of him and Timothy jumped back. He began drawing energy to his hands and forming spheres, then he threw the energy at Slade, but Slade just knocked the spheres away.

"You won't escape me this time." Slade said and he appeared directly in front of Timothy. Slade reached out and grabbed Timothy by the head. "Where is the crown?" Slade demanded.

"I'll never let you get it." Timothy gasped his head being squeezed tightly.

"You know I will kill you." Slade said. "Or you can tell me where the crown is."

"Kill me and you'll never get the power you seek." Timothy said coughing. "The power is directed not only through the items themselves but through me as well."

"Really?" Slade asked. "Then I should be able to control you..."

"NO!" Timothy yelled as Slade began squeezing harder. A dark burning, smoke like, shadow seeped from Slade's hand into Timothy's head.

The shadow began seeping around Timothy completely encompassing his body. Timothy struggled, thrashing about, trying to get free. He attacked, scratching and kicking, but Slade's grip only got stronger until Timothy stopped and became still. Timothy's body dangled from Slade's hand and Slade dropped it, reorentating it to the floor.

Timothy's body fell; as it fell all of the creations he had made dissolved and faded. A massive influx of energy flew into the room as all the energy came back to Timothy, everything within the barrier, everything he had touched, was gone. Timothy hit the ground and bounced with a sickening crunch. Slade dropped and landed next to Timothy, both rings and bracelets glinting in the light and emanating a dark flame.

As Raven ran through the museum she avoided the creatures, then as she was passing by a group of animated statues they started following her. At first Raven thought that they were going to attack but then she noticed that all of the creatures were moving in the same direction, almost as if summoned. She decided to follow them and lifted herself into the air. Moving quickly she continued in the direction that the creatures were moving, she passed by many different animated things from the museum as she flew and continued to wonder who or what had created all of them, if not Timothy then who?

As she turned a corner, and noticed that she was in the prehistoric section of the museum, a wave suddenly hit her. She stopped as though she had hit a solid wall. Raven felt a wave of nausea and pain ripple through her body, then a wave of sheer terror. As she lay on the floor she was only partially aware of the creatures around her writing in pain as well just before they burst into black flame and their energy continued towards the room.

Finally after a few moments the pain and nausea subsided and she was able to stand again. She continued forward, now following the char and smoke from the dark flames. Slowly she entered the huge room and briefly noticed the huge hole near the center, but that was just before she noticed Slade. Slade stood, his back towards her, dark flame rippling up her body and dark lightening crackling around him. The floor beneath him was nearly melting and Raven could feel energy emanation into the room.

"So, Raven, you've finally arrived..." Slade said without turning around. "I was almost afraid that you wouldn't make it when you dropped to the floor." He paused for a second. "I was worried because if you died... Well, do you know what irony is?"

"What are you talking about, Slade?" Raven asked. "Where is Timothy?"

"Timothy? Ah, yes, the _boy_..." Slade replied. "Did you know that 'Timothy' loves you?"

"Where is he?" Raven repeated shaking now.

"And wouldn't it be ironic if he had to _kill_ the one he loved?" Slade said, ignoring her now. "I would love to see that. The agony, the fear... the pain. But, wouldn't that just be so ironic. The man who came to this universe to find you; to protect you-killing you? So ironic, it's simply poetic."

"Where is Timothy!" Raven yelled, fully shaking now.

"If you really want to see him, fine, but I don't think you will like what you find..."

Slade stepped to one side and a wave of pure frigid darkness rushed into Raven. The room went pitch black as screams of horror and agony filled her mind. She could smell blood, death and decay. Waves of shock and horror flooded Raven's senses; it was as if she were in the middle of a cold blooded massacre. She felt nauseous as she tried to remain standing and see through the darkness.

Then, through the darkness, a sight of such pure horror that it enhanced the terror a thousand fold, slowly moved forward. A man, somewhere in his mid twenties or thirties, slowly appeared through the darkness. At first he was simply a shadow, but as he slowly neared her she began to see what horrors she had asked for. He was clothed the same as before, a cape and cloak, but this was so much the opposite. Streaks of fresh blood seeped through his clothing and dripped at its edges. His cape was ripped and shredded as though cut by numerous blades. Though his hands were covered in flesh and cloth they still appeared as though they were skeleton hands. His nails stretched outward and curved slightly and resembled claws more than fingernails.

His hair was very long and a blood red, or rather it was very blond but so soaked with blood that it appeared red. His face appeared to stretch out in the shape of a wolf or dog, but his grin... he appeared childish, with the grin of a young boy. But his eyes... his eyes were the worst part. Where Raven had expected, or hoped, to find resistance, or remorse, she only saw a gleeful lust for violence. The darkness in his eyes was deeper than that which surrounded him, and it was in that moment that Raven knew she had lost Timothy, forever.


	13. Essence of Hell Heaven Within

Yeah, uh, sorry it has taken me so long to update... It was a little bit of this and a little bit of that, but the main reasons are that for some reason I've been unable to submit anything until today... maybe the connection I was trying to use (it was at school through a firewall). Also my laptop is having issues, namely the AC/DC cord that I use to plug it in is ripping... I won't bore you with all of my other excuses-uh, reasons-so I'll stop here and let you read the latest chapter.

* * *

"What's the matter, Raven, you seem disappointed to see me." Timothy said sarcastically, giving a light chuckle. "Am I not what you expected?" 

"No... No, you are _not_ Timothy." Raven replied, her expression one of disgust. "Timothy is not evil, but you are _pure_ evil."

"It takes one to know one, I believe the term is." Timothy replied his smile fading slightly. "From one dark entity to another... But, you are right, Raven, I am _not_ 'Timothy'." He spat the name as though it were poison. "That is but a name which you gave a child. I am something far superior, far greater. The power which I hold can and _has_ destroyed entire universes." He laughed, turning his back to her. "I've finally regained what had been taken from me, and more."

Timothy walked into the darkness a little. "And you, Raven, are capable of much more."

"Really?" Raven asked, skepticism filling her voice. "And what would that be?"

"Your power over darkness, your ability to detect people's thoughts, your ability to control time itself... These are but droplets of a vast pool of power." He turned to face Raven again. "And do you know what is holding you back?"

Raven wasn't liking where this was going, and she wasn't interested in power, but to prevent Timothy from doing anything else she replied, "What?"

"Your fear." Timothy replied. "You are afraid of your own shadow, Raven. You are afraid of what your emotions do to you. These hold you back, these and... your friends." Timothy moved closer to Raven his smile returning. "Relinquish your bonds of friendship with the titans, join me and I will teach you how to master your powers."

"And if I say no?"

"Oh, did you think I was giving you a choice?" Timothy sneered.

Timothy raised his right arm and pointed it at Raven. Around his arm the darkness grew thicker and suddenly a violent wind pushed into Raven. She felt herself falling back, cold darkness seeping over her body. As she fell to the ground her mind became calm, blank... then, slowly thoughts of darkness began to pool into her mind. The thoughts, though poisonous, began to excite her. At each malicious thought Raven began to feel a little more relaxed and a little more invigorated.

"Take my hand." Timothy said from above her.

It was like watching a movie, or watching someone from a distance. She took his hand and rose to her feet. Timothy put his left arm around her waist and waved his right arm. The darkness around them lessened and a pool of color appeared. The pool rippled and Raven could see the other titans running through the empty halls of the museum.

"Let's have a little fun..." Timothy said as the image rippled and Beast Boy and Terra appeared.

---

Beast Boy could hear Terra running behind him; could feel her hand in his, and could hear her heavy breathing as they ran down the empty hall. They hadn't yet found any sign of Timothy, or anyone else for that matter. Ever since they had separated from the other titans they'd been alone.

Beast Boy quickly changed into a dog and sniffed the air and floor but his sensitive nose could only pick up his and Terra's sent.

"Anything?" Terra asked as he became human again.

"No, nothing." Beast Boy replied. "I mean _really_ nothing. All I could sense was you."

"So..."

"So places usually have many scents but here there are none."

"Oh," Terra replied. She didn't get it, but, then, neither did Beast Boy.

"Come on, let's keep looking." He said and they began moving again.

"Beast Boy, wait, what's that?" Terra asked as she stopped.

Beast Boy turned around and watched as some kind of golem morphed out of the wall. The golem was twice the size of either Beast Boy or Terra and appeared to be made out of stone. Terra raised her hands and tried to take control of the stone but as the golden energy spread around the stone it was blocked and absorbed by shadow.

"I can't control it." Terra said.

"Then we will have to do this the hard way." Beast Boy said becoming a velociraptor.

Beast Boy charged as Terra picked up any rock she could find. Together they attacked the golem, knocking it back a few steps. Then, as Beast Boy moved to bite the golem it thrust its fist into his throat. The darkness around the golem moved around Beast Boy and he began moving wildly. As the golem crumbled Beast Boy fell to the ground becoming human again.

"Beast Boy!" Terra yelled running to him.

"T-air-ah... rah-un!" Beast Boy managed to say, obviously struggling to control himself. "I can't stop-" he stopped mid sentence and picked himself up. Beast Boy turned to face Terra, his eyes emanating shadow fire. Slowly he morphed into a raptor again, but this time, to her horror, he began chasing after Terra.

---

As the golem crumbled and Beast Boy became human again he turned to smile at Terra. "That wasn't so hard." He said laughing.

"Beast Boy! H-elp!" Terra gasped.

Beast Boy opened his eyes and saw another golem, different than the first, gripping Terra around the neck. From its hands a cold dark light was spreading across her body. The shadow moved slowly and where it passed stone remained. Terra desperately tried to reach out to Beast Boy but the shadow was moving to fast and her arms froze in place. As the shadow finished moving along her body, taking her head last, she cried out, "I'm sorry!"

"Terra! NO!" Beast Boy yelled as he ran to her, but as he neared her the statue she had become began to move.

"R-ru-run Bea-st bo-y..."

Terra lunged at Beast Boy and knocked him to the ground. Beast Boy raised his arms to block her next attack; then morphed into a hummingbird attempting to escape. Terra grabbed two marble tiles and smacked them into Beast Boy, knocking him to the ground. Beast Boy became human again, nearly unconscious. As his eyes closed he watched as Terra grabbed him and started dragging him somewhere.

---

Raven watched in idle horror as the image moved to Starfire and Robin. They had begun fighting, each in their own illusion. As Starfire threw a starbolt at Robin, it hit, and Robin flew backward into a wall, blood dripping from his wounds, Raven cringed inwardly. She could feel herself smile on the outside, the ripples of maddened joy running through her, but this was simply because of the spell that Timothy had placed her under.

Glancing over, Raven saw the childish grin on Timothy's wicked face. He was enjoying the titans destroy each other, or, more importantly, destroy their loved ones. It was sick, pure madness. Raven felt sick, she felt worse than she had ever felt before.

"It's been so long..." Timothy laughed. "They took my powers away, ripped them from me and left me for dead... Boy, were they surprised when I came back." He laughed again. "And now look at me, I've taken full control of him. The absolute power of all existence at my fingertips!"

Timothy turned to Raven. "See, I knew you would enjoy it." He smiled. "You just needed to be awakened."

Raven absently turned back to the image of her friends being torn apart. She silently wished she could stop, yell out, turn away... anything, just to make the agony disappear. She had no control over her body. It was like a dream, or a nightmare. All she could do was watch through her eyes and feel Timothy controlling her. Slowly, she could feel herself loosing more control, her will fading.

"And to think, he and his sister once managed to defeat me." Timothy laughed. "I hate to admit it, but back then we were even in power. If I hadn't tried to kill him... but it isn't important now." He turned to Raven again. "You will have to kill them you know." He said as though to sooth her. "In the end, if you want to end this suffering, you will have to kill them."

At those words Raven felt herself slip even further. She wouldn't, she couldn't kill her friends... the only family she ever had. The ones she loved... If... if she did she knew it would be all over, she would die inwardly and Timothy would finally get what he wanted. At the thought Raven felt a deep hatred begin to burn within her. The emotion flooded past her grip on consciousness and into Timothy's control.

"Then..." he replied, "you will do it now."

Raven felt her rage being replaced with terror as she shifted into the hall where Terra and Beast Boy were killing one another. She fought with all her power to stop herself as she threw jagged spears of her shadow at Terra. As her shadow hit and pierced Terra's skin Terra fell to the ground. Beast Boy turned and saw her.

"Raven, what have you done?" He yelled. "Why? Raven, why?"

Raven stepped forward looking down at him as she stood over Beast Boy. She raised her right hand, bringing shadow around it. Beast Boy looked up at her, tears streaming down his eyes. He didn't struggle, or even try to move as she attacked, his last words were the simple question, "Why, Raven, why?"

Inside Raven wept and begged for forgiveness. She couldn't stop herself, she knew she had to, had to fight against Timothy, but she also knew it wasn't possible. She was loosing her mind with each struggle, slowly she lost more and more of herself. At this rate she would slip into a deep sleep and in that comatose state she would die...

Outside she ripped Cyborg apart and moved on to Starfire. It was quick but painful, for the both of them. Finally, as she lifted Robin by the throat, tears and blood falling to the floor, Raven knew this was it. As she finished the last Titan off she slipped into complete darkness. Her last thoughts before she lost consciousness were, 'I am sorry everyone, my weakness has killed us all..."

---

"Perfect." Timothy said turning to face Slade. "I should thank you for releasing me, but that wouldn't be like me. You wanted ultimate power, Slade, but all you've released is your own death. Twice now you have helped those who do nothing for you in return. You must feel utterly betrayed."

Slade stood, unmoving, as Timothy talked to him. Ever since he had released the darkness within Timothy he had been like this. Slade had once thought he could control the dark power, but now he knew he was wrong. Once again he had made a mistake, but this time it would be his last.

Timothy moved his right arm towards Slade, palm facing Slade's body. "Good bye, Slade." Timothy said as chaotic dark flame flashed through Slade incinerating him.

Raven reappeared, blood dripping from her. Her expression was a mix between a dull, dead expression and one of lustful joy. She walked over to Timothy and he moved his left arm around her waist, holding her to him. "Raven, now that all good has been killed within you, I may release you from this spell." He brought his right arm up to her head and lightly touched her with his index finger. The darkness which had surrounded her faded and was replaced with a new darkness, Raven's darkness.

Raven laughed a wicked joyful chuckle and said, "Thank you. Now I am released from that weakness."

"I know dear, I know." Timothy said. "Now, will you join me?"

"Of course, one dark soul needs another." Raven said.

"Good, good." Timothy said, taking her chin in his hand. He bent down as she rose up and their lips met...

---

Deep within the shell that Raven had become Raven's mind and soul wept. She had just killed all of her friends, the ones she had grown to love; the ones who had pulled her out of her shell. Now they were gone, everything was gone. She had no reason to be any more. If Timothy desired her body so much he could have it, but her soul he would never have.

As she floated through the endless darkness the misery within her slowly began to fade. Slowly light began to appear around Raven and as she fell further the light began to take shape. Slowly colors formed, the colors formed into shapes, and finally the shapes came together to form an image.

Raven lightly landed on the soft grass of a small hill. As she looked around her she noticed that she was once again within her dream world. The mountain peaks were just visible through the clouds beyond the small forest that rimmed the grassy field. The small brook gently flowed out of the calm pool at the bottom of the hill. Behind her the tree stood, its leaves gently rustling in the leaves.

"I always thought this was something that Timothy had created." Raven said to herself.

_Ah, but you were wrong child. This world is **your** 'inner world'._ The voice was within her head. It created its words not simply with sounds but with images and emotions as well. _I never brought you out of your own mind, you invited me in. But this time I must apologies for I have entered without your permission._

"Where are you?" Raven asked, her eyes narrowing.

_I am at the edge of this world awaiting your invitation._ The voice said. _I shall not continue inward until I have that permission._

"Then I will not give it to you." Raven said. "Not after what you have done to me... after what you forced me to do."

_Child, that was not me, nor was it the one you call Timothy. The one who controlled you is another entity which 'Timothy' had taken it upon himself to seal away. He had managed but because of Slade the magics within his body became unbalanced and the seal was broken._ The voice told her.

"And why should I believe you?" Raven snapped.

_The bubble which 'Timothy' created can only be penetrated from the outside, or by a specific force from within. An ethereal object created by 'Timothy' himself which alone holds the power to seal the darkness away._ The voice replied. _Because of the bubble that 'Timothy' created the one who this task would normally fall upon is incapable of entering this area. You alone have the power necessary to do this task. I beg of you, dear Raven, please allow me in to give the item to you and teach you how to use it._

"And if I say no?" Raven asked.

_Then your friends are truly lost, evil will win, and eventually brake free, and all of existence will be thrown into chaos._

"My friends _are_ dead."

_There you are wrong, child. You did not kill your friends, you merely mortally wounded them. Even now they fight for their lives, not simply because of their wounds but because it gives the evil entity pleasure to watch them suffer. Again, Raven, I beg you to allow me in. If I do anything, anything at all, to loose your trust you need but tell me to leave and I will be forced out of this world._

"Ok... under those conditions I will allow you inward." Raven said. "Now, show me how to kill this evil."

At the edge of the woods a small hound-like creature appeared. It appeared to be a wolf at first glance, except the proportions were off, and... well, it looked like Beast Boy would, green. The hound approached Raven, its tail between its legs. As soon as it was ten feet from her it stopped and lowered its head to the ground.

_I humble myself in your presence and apologize for the misfortune that we have caused._ The voice said. _For this reason, and for the divine respect that we hold for you, I appear to you now in my truest and weakest form._

"I thought you were human." Raven replied looking down at the dog.

_No, only my three brothers and sister are human._ The voice said. _I am the first of my species; the father if you will. It was from me that the rest, including the evil we fight, were spawned from._

"Spawned?" Raven questioned.

_In a manner of speaking, yes. But that is a part of my history that is unimportant right now._ The voice said. _If I may, I shall return to my human form._

"Are you asking my permission?" Raven asked. "Why do respect me?"

_For the same reason that Robin does._ The voice said. _Even though you were born to do horrible things you chose to use the power given to you to do good. It would have been so easy for you to allow the darkness to consume you and for you to become evil, but you chose kindness over wickedness. That is something that deserves respect, especially for one of your power._

"Thank you, I guess." Raven replied. "You may become human, if you want."

The dog shimmered, as if liquefying, and began to grow. Slowly the shape of a man appeared from the liquid form of the dog. Then, as his features straightened out clothes threaded themselves around his body and once again Timothy stood before her. And yet he was different. The Timothy in the physical world had always been different from the Timothy in her dreams but this one was still more different than the other two. First, where the other Timothys had had a left eye that was a light green surrounding a dark brown and a right eye that was a dark green surrounded by a thin ring of light brown, but this man's eyes were pure green, dark green just around the pupil, pine green around that and light green around the edges. His hair, though still blond, had more of a tint of green than before, and his clothes had green around every edge of the fabric.

"Who are you?" Raven asked.

"I am known as -Aris (pronounced air-e-us)" He replied. "I am one of five 'siblings'. We started as one mind but over time split into two, then three and so forth. Because the original's name couldn't be used for each of us, and certainly not the sister, we created new names. But, again, this is history which you do not need to know as of now."

"You said you were going to show me how to kill Timothy." Raven said. "How?"

"No, not kill, and not 'Timothy'. You must balance the magics within his body and force the malice entity back into its dormancy." He replied. "I will teach you how to do this. To begin bring out the book that we gave you earlier."

Raven, startled that she still had the book, bulled it out and opened it. Once she had it opened -Aris continued. "If you turn to the end of the book you will find a compartment that is meant to hold a deck of cards." Raven closed the book and reopened it from the end. There, just before the hardcover binding, was a wooden compartment. In the center of the compartment was a space that appeared to be meant for, as -Aris had said, a deck of cards. The cards would be longer than playing cards. "Now place your two forefingers, middle and index, on the center of the final card."

"But the cards aren't there." Raven objected.

"Then place them where the final card would be." Raven moved her hand to where she thought the final card would be and placed her fingers as -Aris had said. "Now, move your hand up and around as though you were gripping a sward."

"Uh, don't you mean sword." Raven asked.

"Oh, forgive me, sometimes I misspell that word. I do hope you will understand if I do it again." He replied, slightly surprised. "Please, continue." As Raven pulled her hand away she felt something cool and solid move out with it. She moved her hand around and gripped the handle and pulled the sword out the rest of the way. "You may return the book if you wish."

The sword was unlike any she had seen before. From the handle to the tip of the blade spells and incantations appeared to be etched in a pattern or image into the sword. The handle was wrapped in some kind of thread in diamond shapes to the hilt, where the thread came out in three long pieces of cloth, which also had spells on them. The cross guard was made of two wings, or rather four, two feathered angelic wings and two flesh demonic wings. The blade itself was a mix between European and Japanese style, and as stated before thousands of archaic symbols were etched along the blade.

"Impressive." Raven said holding the sword out.

"This is the sword that 'Timothy' had attempted to bring out when he fought against Slade, but he didn't manage the attempt. When he was very young 'Timothy' began creating this sword, but it wasn't until he began his travels that he truly managed to manifest it." -Aris lifted his right arm, hand out, palm towards the ground. Slowly the ground began to lift and a tall slab of stone appeared. "The sword is capable of cutting anything, but the one who wields it must know how to use it. For example, try slicing through this stone."

Raven lifted the sword with both hands, adjusted the angle of the blade and swung at the stone. With a horrible clang the sword cut a few inches into the stone and stopped. Raven, worried about the blade, pulled the sword out of the stone, but it was completely undamaged.

"Shouldn't I have been able to cut through the rock?" Raven asked.

"No, not yet. First you need to learn to wield the sword, and then you will need to learn to use it with your own power. After that I may teach you how to cut through solid stone."

So, under the guidance of -Aris Raven began training to use the sword. They started with the basics, mostly swings and blocks, but as Raven showed her skill they moved on to more advanced moves. After a couple of hours Raven was able to cleanly slice through multiple poles in one swing of the sword.

"Good, you are progressing well. We can now begin using your power." -Aris said. "Hold the sword up and begin focusing your energy into the hilt. You should notice that as the energy leaves your body and enters the sword it begins to spread out on its own. It will move through the center of the sword first and then it will begin moving along the blade and out of the sword."

As -Aris spoke Raven had been doing as he said; now she was noticing a dark flame beginning to move alone the edge of the blade. She focused harder and the flame rapidly grew.

"Good, now, try swinging the sword."

Raven did and was astonished at how light the sword had become. She felt as though she could easily hold it out with one hand now. She swung a number of times and watched as the dark flame trailed behind the blade.

"Ok, now, if you focus your energy into the blade itself and swing down in one direction releasing the energy you may be surprised at what happens."

Raven did and as she swung down the flame extended out of the blade, through the air, and into the ground. When she lifted the sword again and looked where she had swung she noticed a cut that expanded through the ground. -Aris moved over to the cut and waved his hand from one end on and the cut faded.

"Good. Now, if we practice with this for a while you should be able to move onto the next step."

"What do you mean by we?" Raven asked.

-Aris extended his right arm outward in front of him and slowly began moving it to the right. Another sword began to materialize out of his hand, this one almost exactly the same as the one Raven was holding. Holding it in one hand he leveled it with Raven's sword.

"Shall we begin?" he asked.

"You can't be serious." Raven said. "I can't beat you."

"I don't expect you to, and I won't be using my full strength. All we need to do is practice sword 'play' for a short amount of time and increase your experience with the sword. As you learn to utilize your power with the sword you will find that you are better able to move with it. Finally, when we succeed you will be able to cut nearly anything."

"What exactly do you mean by that?" Raven asked

"You will understand when we get to that point." -Aris said. "Shall we begin?"

They raised their swords and metal collided with metal. They sparred, and dueled, and slowly Raven began to loose track of time. After what seemed like days Raven suddenly stopped and looked around. The world around them had changed, the weather was pleasant, flowers were blooming, and Raven noticed that the tree on the hill had changed. It was no longer the oak it had once been but was now a cherry tree, though it had not yet bloomed yet.

"So you have noticed the change, have you?" -Aris asked. "Your inner world has been changing for quite some time now, as has your skills. You still have the abilities you came in here with but now you have become faster and stronger. Your magics are no longer simply based around the shadow magic you had once used."

"How?" Raven asked. "How did this change? Was it you?"

"In part, but you have done most of the work." -Aris answered. "Your love for your friends drove you to become stronger, all I did was give you the method to do so. By utilizing your power with the sword you have helped inspire this change within yourself. You have increased your range of abilities, and for the better. Now, let us return to the stone."

Moments later they were standing next to the stone. Raven raised the sword and swung into the stone. The sword moved directly through the stone and the top half slid off the bottom. Raven looked at the stone in astonishment; then she looked at the sword. Now, instead of the shadow that had been around it in the beginning, there was a cool white light emanating from the blade.

"Congratulations." -Aris said. "Now we can move onto the next step."

"But I cut the stone." Raven objected. "I thought..."

"True. You cut the stone, but you are still stuck within this world. We must bring you to a level where you can escape and take your body back. Once you have achieved that our training will be done, unless you choose to continue with it." -Aris said. "Now, before we move on there is something you should know about the sword. It was, in part, modeled off of a type of sword which is found in another universe. These swords have names, and, in essence, souls. Each sword starts out as a relatively normal Japanese style sword, but once activated by its owner it changes form."

"Ok... so then does this sword do the same?"

"Sort of. It is not the exact same because those swords can only be used by the person who they belong to. This one allows the user to find and create their own. In other words you don't have to be a shinnigami to use it." -Aris told her. "Basically we need you to be able to call the sword's name, then, at some point, you will create your own sword."

"What is its name?" Raven asked.

"For that I have a small story..."


End file.
